re:Bound Plus
by Allison Illuminated
Summary: Deleted scenes and extra content from my fanfiction re:Bound - make sure to read re:Bound before checking this anthology out!
1. Omake I (C26)

Omake I (C26)

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re:Bound Plus

Allison Illuminated

Chapter Publish Date: 3/31/18

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 **Where in re:Bound – In Volume Three, Chapter Six, after Pyrrha just learned that she is the next Fall Maiden, everyone in the office gets in the elevator in order to see Amber in the vault. This conversation was supposed to take place in the elevator**

 **Why It Was Cut – Ruby is more than a little OOC and the humorous tone just didn't work here.**

 **TW – None**

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"Hm hm hm hm h-m hm hm hm hm, hm hm hm hm h-m-"

"-open up the door, I don't wanna hear your absolution, hope you're ready for a-"

"Ruby. Neo," Glynda snapped, clenching her crop in her fist. "Please."

Ruby grinned cheekily at her as Neo kept quietly humming. "It's elevator music, Miss Goodwitch. We can't have a proper elevator ride without elevator music, can we?"

"Ruby, there are nine people in this elevator going to visit a dying maiden, and you two are singing _Casey Lee Williams_ ," Blake said in exasperation. "Can you at least pretend like you're taking this seriously?"

"Personally, I do prefer It's My Turn, although Wings certainly does have charm," Ozpin mused, earning him a glare from Glynda.

"How on earth do you- You know what, of course you listen to that." Shaking her head, the deputy headmistress stared stoically ahead, muttering to herself about coffee and music.

"It's My Turn? When It Falls is _way_ better, how can that possibly be your favorite song off of Volume Three?" Ruby exclaimed.

"Well, the build-up on It's My Turn is quite excellent," James mused, earning himself a death glare from Glynda.

"Rubes just won't admit she's a casual Casey fan," Qrow said, teasingly ruffling his hand through her hair.

"How am I a casual fan if I like what are _undeniably_ her best songs?"

 _"Time to Say Goodbye is overplayed and everyone knows it,"_ Neo's shimmery writing scrawled along the wall, and everyone nodded in agreement. _"Plus, Ruby likes_ Let's Just Live _and she refuses to admit it."_

"Neo!" Ruby shrieked, giving her best betrayal eyes as Neo smirked and laughed at her.

"I like From Shadows?" Blake offered quietly.

"Dream Come True?"

Ruby snickered and poked Pyrrha. "That's just cause you and Jaune listen to ballads all the time," she said, getting a deep blush

Winter sighed and held her head high. "I suppose if we are admitting our favorites, I am quite partial to Caffeine..."

"You like _Caffeine_ , Ice Queen?" Qrow snorted. "I would've pegged you for more of a Mirror Mirror girl."

Ruby and Blake looked at each other and burst out laughing. Ozpin gave them a questioning glance, and they chorused, "Weiss."

"I will have you know that rap originated in _Atlas,_ bird," Winter snapped, unable to keep the hint of a smile from her lips. "Any proper Atlesian should be raised on a healthy mix of classical and rap rock."

"My men are quite partial to I Burn," Ironwood agreed.

"Am I the only one in this elevator who doesn't listen to emo music?!" Glynda exclaimed, at her wit's end.

Ozpin joined Neo in humming This Will Be The Day, smiling as the doors to the elevator slid open. "I am quite fond of Casey and Jeff, Glynda. They never came to this academy, but I can assure you they are lovely people. I think you'd find their music quite wonderful if you gave it a chance."

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 **[A/N] Welcome to re:Bound Plus! This is a collection of deleted scenes from my fic re:Bound, and possibly additional bonus content in the future.**


	2. Omake II (C31)

Omake II (C31)

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re:Bound Plus

Allison Illuminated

Chapter Publish Date: 9/3/18

Beta: Vixie

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 **Where in re:Bound –** **Part 1/6 of the Underground AU.** **The Vytal Massacre and attack on Beacon has just taken place. Jaune and Ren are dead. Blake and Yang are with Raven. Ruby and Neo are comatose. Also, it's worth noting that the first scene is still a part of re:Bound's current body, still as the first scene of C31.**

Note: Since these 5.5 chapters follow a different series of events, I'm going to be referring to them as the "Underground AU" because of the focus on the Underground in Mistral.

 **Why It Was Cut – Here's the full A/N I posted explaining my decision to rewrite the first half of Volume Four. In the end, I think I made the right choice. Volume Four has followed along my mental plan for re:Bound much better than the original, but it's still fun to go back and look at a sort of AU for what re:Bound could have been.**

 _Alright, let's cut straight to the point – I'm going to rewrite volume four, for several reasons:_

 _I lost the focus on this story a bit in these past few chapters. There's a way more detailed analysis of word count at the bottom of this update, but essentially the most important characters are getting way less screen time than side characters (and some lesser major ones). The main characters in this fic are Bella, Ruby, Blake, Pyrrha, and maybe Raven. In what I've written so far of V4, it's been Weiss, Yang, Emerald, and Ilia, and that's a big problem. This will 100% change._

 _Similarly, character has been somewhat shafted in favor of worldbuilding. I intend to bring the focus back to characters and filter out the majority of the world building. That content won't disappear, though – I'm going to revamp re:Bound Plus and run a World of re:Bound series there for those who enjoy that aspect of the story._

 _The pacing has gone awry. I think that's because I was trying to cram an entire volume into five chapters, and it didn't work. Ten chapters should relax everything enough to make it leagues better._

 _Ruby and Bella woke up waaay too late. That will change._

 _As much as I find the Emerald/Ilia/Adam saga fascinating to write and deeply interesting, Mistral just isn't where the heart of re:Bound is. The focus there drained a lot of the energy out of the story, I think._

 _I think the problems with this volume arose out of inexperience. re:Bound is the longest and best work I've ever created, but I've never made it to the second half of a longfic before. Moreover, there's no direct guide in canon for where I'm going, so I think I panicked a little and dove into making that structure instead of letting my characters guide me forwards. These are the issues I hope to rectify, and I hope everyone will enjoy the changes :)_

 **TW (for all five and a half chapters): Imagery of violence, major character death, PTSD, abuse, and self-harm alongside non-graphic mentions of rape, underage sex, and sexual abuse.**

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 _"Neo…_ _?"_

 _Frozen hands clasped together, crystals forming where skin touched, bitterly cold. "I'm here," she whispered, barely able to form the words._

 _"It's so cold..."_

 _Bella desperately wrapped her body around her Rose, tears freezing into sparkling gems_ _before they could run down her face. Rubies and diamonds_ _fell_ _through_ _ocean, vast, endlessly dropping away around them. They floated through nothingness, anchored to nothing but each other._

 _"I'll save you, Ruby… We'll wake up from this, I promise."_

 _"You… promise?" Ruby whispered._

 _Stardust spilled into the void, unbound._

 _"Yeah. I promise."_

* * *

 _He promised._

Her body was coals and embers, ready to collapse in on itself in a cloud of sparks at any time. She burned through the covers, scorching the scuff marks off the old cedar paneling and bringing the cabin to the ground around her. Such was the way of fire – one lick of flame escaped the campfire and the entire forest burnt to the ground. She should marvel, she supposed, that she hadn't destroyed everything around her yet. She could still feel her skin on the wool beneath her and Crocea Mors' edge digging into her cheek as she curled tighter around the old weapon.

Metal was easy to understand. Solid, rigid, familiar. Her skin buzzed where the polar currents running down the steel shield met her aura. It was a hollow comfort, sure, but she clung to it like a lone rock rising out of the vicious seas.

Fire didn't listen to commands. Fire just took and took until there was nothing left but darkness.

 _He promised everything would be fine._

 _He promised me._

"Pyrrha?"

A hand gently rested on her shoulder, pressing Yang's nightgown into her feverish skin. Fighting with all of her power to keep the fire inside, her aura flared out and grabbed onto the first piece of metal attached to the person's body. Taiyang yelled as he was violently thrown into a wall by his shoulderpad, slumping to the ground in pain.

"You've got to be fu-"

"Shut up, Qrow. Let me handle this." She shuddered as she fought the red haze around her back inside, nails digging deep into her palm. She could hear them but couldn't respond – Weiss and Nora quietly whispering behind her, Tai cursing as Qrow helped him up. Raven's shadow fell upon the wall, brooding. "Can you walk?"

Squeezing her eyes shut, Pyrrha shook her head.

"I'm going to move you. Don't panic or you'll kill everyone in this house," Raven snapped. Weiss and Nora gasped as a blue bubble surrounded Pyrrha and lifted her into the air, carrying her away from the room leaving Crocea Mors behind on the bed. The warm summer night still felt Atlesian on her skin, each gust chilling her to the core. Once they got far enough away from the Rose/Xiao-Long house, Raven activated her powers fully and pulled her bubble high into the sky. Pausing high above Patch, the Spring Maiden drifted closer to Fall and pressed her hands against the azure magic. "Pyrrha, look at me." When she didn't respond, she snarled, " _Now_."

Weakly, Pyrrha let her eyes fall open and gave Raven a desperate glance. She found cruel red eyes glaring back at her expectantly. _She wants me to talk._ Trembling, she shook her head.

The bubble pulsed dangerously as Raven's fury deepened. "Do not mock me," the Nevermore Queen whispered in a deeply dangerous voice, "or you will regret it. You will not be the first Maiden I have killed."

"I can't," Pyrrha whispered, trembling as the maiden's powers rose within her. Red haze surrounded her and flames began to lick at the corners of her nightgown.

The red gauntlet sent her head snapping back, woozily slamming against the side of the bubble. Raven kept their eyes locked as she pulled her fist back. "I told you not to mock me."

"I told you that I _CAN'T!_ " Pyrrha screamed, her powers exploding away from her body. Once it escaped the confines of her aura, raw magic uncontrollably flooded out of her body and pooled into an inferno inside the bubble, fighting with all its power to go supernova. Flames engulfed her, seeping through every inch of her body, filling her mouth, she couldn't breathe only exist and burn burn burn bu-

 _He promised_ _me._

* * *

The tent stank of blood and sweat, leaving a metallic taste on Blake's tongue. That was a faunus thing, her heightened senses, she supposed – nobody else in the tent seemed revolted by the taste of her girlfriend's exposed flesh on the air, the gaping wound Silo was still treating three and a half hours after she had woken up from treating him. Her abdomen burned in pain as she curled up on the upholstered chair, ears flattened to her head and nails buried in her legs, but she sat in muted silence as she watched a dozen members of the Branwen work to save Yang's life.

 _Eerie blue split the sky, Vale collapsing in on itself in a pyre of airships falling from the sky and monsters wearing the skin of Faunus. She wished he had ripped Wilt from its scabbard, running his finger down its blade leaving a thin trail of blood and aura before pulling back and sinking the blade deep into her chest instead of her gut. Maybe then she wouldn't have to deal with the pain, the regret, the guilt…_

 _When Yang woke up, she would know_ everything.

Somebody sat down in the chair next to her. Blake flinched, then winced at the searing pain that ran down the length of her body. She suffered it in silence. "Don't touch me."

"You're strong. I respect that." The woman slouched down in her chair, short black hair partially obscuring her bangs. Idly, she turned a silver pistol over and over in her hands, eyes flitting calculatedly from Yang to her weapon to Blake. Her presence put Blake on edge. She had noticed the woman popping in and out of the tent – obviously a teleportation semblance – so she knew she was one of Raven's bandits, but nothing would keep her calm tonight and the gun…

 _Sienna Khan and Lilianne Hale fell to the ground in slow motion. Ironwood turned towards her under the dying sun and raised his gleaming silver gun. For a moment, she found his shadowed eyes with hers and was transfixed by the hollow pain and grief that locked her into place, staring. The barrel of the gun stared back. Slowly, the general pulled the trigger as the sky turned crimson..._

 _Why did Yang push her out of the way?_

"...ould introduce myself," the woman was saying. "I'm Greaser, Raven's told me all about you. As long as you're with our tribe, you're family." Her expression softened slightly, and she rose to her feet again. Back turned to the curled-up cat faunus, she said, "I know now's probably not the time to hear this, but if you need _anything_ , I'll be around."

Without waiting to see if Blake responded, she vanished from the tent.

Maybe if Blake had been weaker, if Ruby had never caught her at the docks, she would have run as far from everyone Adam could hurt as possible. Even now, she felt that pull, the pull to leap from her chair and vanish into Anima forever. Instead, she sat and boiled in her guilt and despair and fear, paralyzed by pain and indecision.

 _Fuck you, Ruby. Fuck you for all of this. I could have run that night and everyone would be safe. That stupid video wouldn't have lead to the gods-damned protest, and all of this wouldn't be my fault._

 _"_ _I wish I had never gone after you the night you ran."_ Ruby's words in detention all those months ago echoed in her head, and Blake's lips twitched at the bitter irony. _Even she fucking got it. Everything is gone because of me._

"You aren't okay."

Looking up, Blake stared at Silo, his eyes glowing mint green as his semblance scanned her body. Her eyes narrowed, and she cocked her head slightly at him. "How'd you guess?" she said, words bitterly twisting in her mouth.

His eyes narrowed in turn. Reaching out his hand, his auratic glow spread down his arm and a ghostly outline appeared around her. "Every man, woman, and child in this camp has seen people die and the world burn around them," he said quietly, then suddenly clenched his fist. Blake screamed as the faint mist around her body solidified into a green casing and her abdomen screamed in pain, twisting and contorting as it knit itself back together. Silo relaxed his hand and let it drift back to his side. "If you can't handle that, you won't last very long around here."

Blake hissed, unarching her back and curling back up into a ball, and Silo raised an eyebrow at her. "You have no ide-"

"You are a child," Silo said, silencing her in a heartbeat. "A brave, foolish child, but a child nontheless. Raven has told me about you."

"If she's told you about me, then you know about how-" Blake spat, only to be cut off again.

"Told me about what?" he asked quietly. "How you're a faunus rights activist? How you're dating her daughter?"

"Then you should know what I've been through!" she burst out, drawing the attention of the bandits still surrounding Yang.

Silo gave her a pitying glance. "No."

Blake blinked. "What?"

"You don't listen," the elder bandit said as the other men and women turned back to Yang. "Nobody in this camp is stranger to pain and struggle. Your experiences are no different, and you assume too fast." His gaze hardened. "Insomnia and clinical depression. Inability to face personal conflict. I don't give a shit about your 'struggles,' child. However, it is my responsibility to be able to save the lives of every person in this tribe."

"I thought bandits left their wounded out for the Nevermores," Blake sneered, and Silo shook his head.

"Lashing out is pointless. The fact that you are doing so instead of allowing me to help you is precisely why you are a child."

Silo took a menacing step forwards as she said, "I'm not a child! I'm eighteen! I've been fighting for my entire fucking life and I just watched Vale _burn_. You have no right-"

"Be quiet." Silo's calloused hand gripped Blake's shoulder and pulled her closer so their faces nearly met. Blake tried to look away, but he held her face in place with two fingers and forced her to make eye contact. "For two straight hours, I watched you sit in this chair, doubled over in extreme pain and stewing in your own misery, watching me. You could have asked for help the moment you woke up, yet you chose to punish yourself instead in a room filled with trained doctors and medics. Even our toddlers know when they need help. We are a tribe, not a bunch of criminals holding knives to each other's throats. If you can't rely on others, you have no place with us."

Blake stared at him fearfully, her wide eyes starting to water. Her thoughts were struck silent, and she couldn't respond to the imposing healer before her.

Silo sighed, his shoulders sagging slightly as he dropped eye contact with her. "Your wound should be healed. I apologize for missing part of it earlier; stab wounds are complex, and my attention was diverted too far towards your partner."

"Thank you," she whispered, burying her head in her knees so he couldn't see her tears.

"Child..." He sat down next to her and rested a hand on her back. Blake stiffened, a choked sob escaping her lips before she buried her face in his side and started to cry. Silo sat silently as she shook against him, patiently waiting for her to calm down. Eventually, her breaths came in heaving gasps, and she dug her fingers into his shirt and nodded slightly against his side. "You have a choice to make, Blake Belladonna," Silo said softly, pulling her hair out of her face. "Raven saves everybody she tags once, and never again. You just used your only save, and now you've been healed. If you want, when Raven returns, you can leave this camp, our people, and never return."

"No." Blake pushed herself off of the healer, her voice quavering as she spoke. "I won't leave Yang again. I've already hurt her too much. I won't let her wake up her alone."

Silo bowed his head. "Then you have only one option."

"What?"

"Join the Branwen tribe." Everyone else in the room stopped whatever they were doing and turned to watch as Silo rose to his feet, leaving a stunned Blake behind in her chair. He walked away, back turned from her with his arms crossed, then stopped. "Your relationship with Yang gives you more than enough of a right to join, and Raven likes you personally. We don't allow outsiders in our tribe. We won't hold you here against your will, but once you join you're one of us for life. Yang has been one since her birth, whether she understands that or not. If you want to stay here with her, you have to be one as well."

"Become a bandit?" Blake echoed faintly.

One of the other healers narrowed his eyes at her and took a step forwards. "The only people who call us bandits are outsiders. Tribal lifestyle is traditional to Anima, and we are the last and the greatest of the Animan tribes. We take only what we need and protect our own. Mistral owns a tiny corner of this continent and the rest is _ours._ "

Silo nodded in agreement. "We will give you a home, a family, protection. In return, you will become stronger and use that strength to protect our people."

"But what about school? My team?"

He smirked at her. "You would still be able to attend. I went to Shade Academy, child. Astral, Vernal, and Greaser went to Haven Academy, and Topaz went to Atlas. Of course, the Branwens have all attended Beacon since the schools inception. Everyone in our inner circle is a trained huntsman strong enough to take out an entire team of trainees easily-"

"Qrow lost to Ruby twice," Blake interrupted, and Silo shook his head.

"Qrow Branwen is not a member of our tribe. His father disowned him fifteen years ago. First of all, he's always so drunk he can barely lift his scythe. Second of all, he didn't lose to Ruby Rose." He drew himself up to his full height, eyes glowing slightly. "He lost to the power of Bella Branwen, heiress to the Branwen tribe, the hunter-killer who could take out full teams before her tenth birthday. The only person stronger than Bella is Raven, and only for her Maiden powers. If it weren't for her bond..." Silo trailed off in silent contemplation, leaving Blake shocked before him.

"Heiress? But Yang..."

"Is second in line to take on the tribe. Did Bella not tell you about her return, the two weeks she stayed with us in January?"

Blake's brow furrowed. "No… I don't think she told Ruby, so she definitely didn't tell me."

He raised an eyebrow, then bowed her head. "I am not surprised. The extent of the damage done to her by the monsters that held her before Ruby is truly horrific." Blake's eyes widened in surprise and she leaned forward slightly in anticipation, but Silo shook his head. "If she has not told you, I will respect her privacy. I suspect, though, that it has more to do with Ruby Rose than you, so if you ask her she may tell you."

Blake fell back into her chair, mind whirling as she thought through everything she knew about Neo. _Ask her? Have I ever asked her anything? Would she even answer?_ "I… see."

"The question still remains." Silo crossed his arms and fixed his gaze on her. "Will you leave now that our kindness has been paid out, or will you join the Branwen Tribe?"

Blake closed her eyes and took a deep breath. _Become a member of the Branwen Tribe… I can't leave Yang here alone, and I'll be able to escape the White Fang_ and _Ozpin… But…_ "Will I have to kill anybody?" she asked quietly.

"No. All we ask is your utmost devotion to the protection of our tribe."

Blake nodded, then her amber eyes shot open. "Then I'll do it, I guess. I'll become a member of the Branwen Tribe if that's what it takes to stay with Yang." Her voice quavered even as her resolve hardened. _I promised Ruby I wouldn't run away. I promised her, and I won't. Even if Yang hates me, even if she never wants to see me again, I'm going to be there when she wakes up._

"Good." Blake and Silo both spun around to see Raven's shadowed form in the doorway. The Nevermore Queen stepped into the medical tent with a stony expression, looking between the two impassively. "I would expect nothing less of you after you protected my daughter's life with your own."

"Raven," Blake whispered.

Raven gave her a half smile, taking her hand off her sword then crossing her arms. "I suppose I should welcome you to the tribe. Forgive me, it's been a… trying day." Blake opened her mouth, but Raven held up a hand to silence her. "I know what you want. Patience. Tai, come in."

Everybody did a double-take as Taiyang followed Raven in, carrying Pyrrha's limp form in his arms. "Tai?" Silo whispered, gawking at Raven's ex-husband. "Raven, what the hell happened while you were away?"

"Pyrrha!" Forgetting herself for a moment, Blake leaped from her chair and rushed to Pyrrha's side. She pressed her fingers to the other girl's head and found it too hot to touch. Backing away slightly, she stared wide-eyed at Tai. "What happened?"

Tai's expression was grave as he walked across the room and gently set Pyrrha down on a spare table. "Rae, you know more than I do," he said, then turned to Silo and nodded.

"Ozpin's experiment worked. Pyrrha is now the Fall Maiden, or partially at least." Raven walked to the unconscious girl's bedside. Placing a hand on her forehead, blue fire burst to life around her eyes and her hand. A near-identical red fire appeared around Pyrrha's eyes, and she stirred slightly. "She's just adjusting. I had these same symptoms when I received the powers. She just needs to release energy every few hours until it settles. I decided she wasn't safe to be around the other students, so I brought her here."

Blake stared at Pyrrha in happy awe. _She's… she's alive! I thought it was a death sentence, but-_ "Wait, partial maiden? That means Cinder is still alive, right?"

Raven nodded, her expression grim.

Blake's ears flattened, then relaxed slightly as she looked back at Pyrrha. "I thought she was going to die, and I was never going to see her again..." she said in a small voice. Tai and Raven shot each other a look, and her heart sank. "What about the rest?" she whispered.

Tai sighed, and Raven met her gaze evenly. "Blake. Promise me that you'll be strong, no matter what," she said softly.

Blake shrunk further back. _No. Please don't let it be my friends, please, please…_ "Why?"

"Jaune and Ren both sacrificed themselves to save Pyrrha from Cinder," Raven said flatly. "They're dead."

 _Dead_. Blake's eyes grew watery as her chest felt as if it was stabbed by a sword of ice. "No..." Looking from Tai to Raven, both who stared sadly back, she shook her head. "No, it can't be, you- You're lying! You've got to be lying, they can't be dead!"

Tai sighed as a tear trickled down her face. "Blake."

She squeezed her eyes shut to stop the oncoming tears. "Both of them?"

"I'm sorry."

 _Jaune and Ren are dead._

 _Because of me._

Blake swayed in place for a moment, then screamed, "NO!" She threw herself into Raven's arms and began violently sobbing. Raven held her awkwardly for a second, then pulled her into a tight hug. Pressing her face into her armored chestplate, Blake screamed wordlessly in grief and despair, searching desperately for something, anything they could be lying about and finding nothing. Grief crashing over her like a tidal wave, breaking down every bit of composure she had left and taking her under.

s _he came to beacon to escape then she met ruby rose she had so many secrets and blake couldn't tear herself away so she searched and searched until ruby found it all out and she ran and ruby chased and she found the secret and she couldn't leave she couldn't escape when tukson died and she had to protest so she fought ruby and ozpin and racism and yang until she was alone with nobody left to fight and then they beat her in the streets and showed it to the whole world and she withdrew so yang couldn't find her and her past couldn't find her until it did and her parents and ilia and adam came and she knew what was going to happen she knew they were going to die and she couldn't do anything so she watched as it tore them apart and everybody found out and yang hated her hated her hated her hated her HATED HER HATED HER HATED HER and then they were at the protest and she spoke and ironwood killed sienna and lilianne and he would have killed her but yang pushed her out of the way and they chased adam and he killed dane and he cut yang's arm off and he would have killed her and vale was burning and ren was dead and jaune was dead and it was all her fault it was all her fault it was all her fault IT WAS ALL HER FAULT IT WAS ALL HER FAULT IT WAS ALL HER FAULT IT WAS ALL HER FAULT!_

Raven sank to the floor with Blake as her knees buckled, holding her closer to her chest as she kept screaming wordlessly in agony. Tai and Silo watched wordlessly, each lost in their own thoughts. For a long time, the four of them stayed like that even as the other healers went back to work on Yang around them. Blake cried until she had no tears left, then clung to Raven until the Nevermore Queen tried to stand. "Blake…"

"Please don't go," she whispered, her hair hanging down into her face as her fingers tightened around the fabric of her sleeves.

Sighing, Raven settled back down onto the ground. Gently pulling the hair from Blake's face, she murmured, "Why me?"

Blake just shook her head and pressed it silently against Raven's shoulder.

"Silo, tell me about Yang," Tai said quietly, and the two huntsmen walked away from the duo on the floor.

Raven watched them go, then sighed and ran her fingers through Blake's hair. They sat in silence for a long moment.

"I watched Summer die." Blake stirred to look at Raven, who stared off into the distance past her. "Everybody thinks that Qrow was the only one, but… I was supposed to be guarding Laurel, but I heard the Grimm break through our lines and I left Laurel with her team and Lilia. I tried to make it to Qrow and Summer, but by the time I did, it was too late. I… I watched her power, her fucking silver-eyed curse, turn her to ash."

"I'm sorry," Blake whispered, her voice thick with emotion.

Raven's expression was peaceful yet lost, too distant to be ascertained. "She was the most important person in my life. Bella was lost to that- that- I-" She took a deep breath. "And Yang and Tai were far, far away from me. When I realized she was gone, I… She was my partner, my best friend. And you want to know the worst part? It was all a distraction. They were going for Laurel and her maiden powers the whole time, and if I hadn't left them Laurel would still be alive and I would never have become the spring maiden."

Raven's words twisted bitterly on the last sentence, ghostly blue haze rising off of her body. Blake let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and hugged Raven tighter. They shared their grief for a long moment, then Blake whispered, "What about my team?"

"Ruby and Neo are both comatose. Harkan caught them outside of the wall, and Ruby had to use her silver eyes. Weiss is fine."

"Oh." Blake sat lost in thought, her volatile emotions briefly muted by her meltdown. "I want to see them."

Raven nodded, then let go of her and rose to her feet. Unsteadily, Blake followed her up, one hand falling to her stomach where she had been stabbed. "You will. Tai and I plan to return for breakfast, and we'll take you with us. First, though, I need to speak to the tribe and… and see Yang." She took a long sigh, then turned on her heel and walked to Yang's bedside, Blake trailing close behind.

Yang's fingers hung limp in Taiyang's gentle grasp. Her face was blackened from soot, head lolling to one side on the pillowless pallet. The healers worked feverishly on her other arm, and Blake's stomach twisted as she saw the raw flesh still exposed at the stump.

"They've been at it for hours," Raven murmured. "It's a miracle Silo and I were able to close off the bone and veins to save her life at all – she lost so much blood. If I wasn't the Spring Maiden, I don't think I could have saved her."

Blake reached out and gently swept the hair from her girlfriend's face. "Maidens can heal?" she asked.

Raven shrugged. "Some better than others. It depends on the relic. Knowledge is neutral on healing, but Winter would be far better than me and Summer would probably just outright kill whoever they try to save."

Blake blinked, trying to process her statement. "Relic?"

Raven eyed her for a moment, then shook her head. "I'll explain later."

Letting Yang's fingers slip out of his hand, Tai looked at Yang then up at Raven with shimmering eyes. "How did we get here, Rae?" he whispered. Raven's expression saddened as she looked from her ex-husband to her long-lost daughter, and she shook her head.

"I don't know, Tai. I really don't know."

* * *

 _This was all a set-up._

Ragged cheers rose from the crowd of faunus as the giant metal doors to the bunker rumbled open, revealing the well-lit compound crowned by a massive White Fang flag within. A line of cars and bullheads sped out past the front line of refugees, headed for the back of the long trail of people laughing and crying as they reached the end of their ten-hour long trek from the burning wall of Vale to the foothills of the Valean Ridge.

Twirling his mustache, Arthur Watts gave a smug smile and shot Adam a meaningful look as he inclined his head toward the interior. "It seems that we've reached our first destination, _High Leader_ Taurus." He took a step forwards only to find Wilt at his throat, and his grin deepened.

Adam's red eyes burned with hazy aura. Two deep gashes ran across the left side of his face, making an X over his eye. "You will not enter this compound until every last faunus is inside," he snarled quietly, "And your _creature_ will not enter at all."

Ilia jumped out of the way fearfully as the ominous clicking noise grew behind her. The… _thing_ hovered past her. A dark orb glowing a sickly blood red melted into jagged bone shards and matte black scales, hovering two feet off the ground with twenty dust red tentacles which sharpened off into gore-crusted bony points. Every instinct in her body fought to run away as Watts casually rested a hand on its surface and inclined his head. "Of course, High Leader. We will continue to keep the Grimm away from your people."

As the clicking noises faded away and the duo swept into the forest, Ghira and Kali watched them go, his arm protectively wrapped around her shoulder as she clutched her hands together at the base of her throat. "Adam, what have you gotten our people into?" he murmured.

Adam turned to look at his former high leader, uncertainty evident in his eyes without the mask to hide them. "I am protecting our people, Ghira," he said, clenching his fists as the muscles clenching under his facial wounds sent spasms of pain running down his body. "If it wasn't for them, we would all be dead." Spinning on his heel, Adam took the first step into the compound to the wild cheers of everyone directly behind him and the confused horror of everyone inside.

Ilia fought to keep her expression straight as she followed the leaders in. _No! You're the reason they're all dead in the first place!_ Rebellious thoughts threatening to upturn her stomach and show on her skin, she fought with all her might to keep her skin a natural color. _Fuck being a chameleon faunus, I can't be weak right now._

"Adam!" A woman with a long fluffy tail sprinted towards the head of the trail of people, panic evident on her face. "Who are all of these people? Where is High Leader Khan? What-" She gulped. "What happened to your face?"

Adam drew himself up to his full height, the remnants of the faunus leadership falling in behind him. Corsac Albain, the Belladonnas, and Signus Crane, the tiger faunus from Atlas – everyone else had either been killed or never made it to the compound. "Members of the White Fang! We give refuge to the faunus of Vale. Atlas has massacred our people in the streets, the robots they sent to protect us turning their guns on us. James Ironwood himself personally killed our high leader Sienna Khan and Lilianne Hale!"

The assorted group of White Fang members inside burst into chaos at the news, some screaming in horror and others nodding grimly.

Adam took a deep breath and continued speaking. "I will assume the position of high leader. Every vehicle in this compound, travel to the end of the refugees and bring every single person who escaped the city with their lives here. Clean the hangar floor, and we should be able to fit everybody. I will give further instructions later!"

Ilia had never felt worse in her life as she followed the leaders in. So much death, so much destruction, and Adam Taurus was behind it all. _Blake, why didn't you do anything? How could you have known about it all and just let it happen?_

 _What's going to happen to us now?_

* * *

"Pancakes are ready."

Tai swept the platter of golden-brown pancakes made from Nora's recipe off the counter top and into the living room. Everyone looked up as he set it down on the coffee table next to a jug of syrup and a bowl of fresh strawberries. Taking a deep breath, he stepped back and surveyed the room.

On the couch, Nora and Blake were both curled up on opposite arms, lost in their thoughts, while Weiss cuddled with Zwei in between them. In the armchair, Pyrrha cradled her knees closer to her chest and deepened her brooding stare – Raven had let her return to Patch for breakfast. On the other side of the table, Qrow and Raven had pulled the dining room chairs into the living room – the dining room table was too small for seven people so they were using the coffee table instead.

Before Tai could sit down, the doorbell rang. Opening the door, he found Glynda standing on the other side.

"James is dead," she said in a dead monotone. "They hung him." Wordlessly, Tai embraced her in a tight hug and led her to the spare chair. The deputy headmistress slumped into it, green eyes fixated on the floor. Going into the dining room, he pulled the last spare chair in and sat down next to his team.

The eight hunters sat in somber silence for a long time, nobody making a move for the food on the table. Finally, Weiss sighed and pulled herself to the edge of the couch, making herself a plate of food before sitting back. Following her lead, everyone else but Nora, Pyrrha, and Glynda followed suit.

"Raven." Everybody turned to look at Blake, who was poking at her food with her fork. "What are relics, and what do they have to do with maidens? How is Pyrrha the maiden if Cinder is still alive?"

Raven nodded and set her fork down, perching at the edge of her chair. "If all you know about the maidens is what Ozpin told you, then you don't know very much about the maidens at all," she said harshly, and Glynda winced. "Most myths have a grain of truth to them, but more of them are factual than you'd think. I assume you all know the tale of the two gods."

"I mean, it's the _origin of humanity,_ " Nora burst out, breaking her silence for the first time. "Even the youngest kids know it."

Blake narrowed her eyes. "Why?"

Raven inclined her head towards her. "The gods gave humanity four gifts. Those gifts manifest in physical forms through four relics: one for creation, one for destruction, one for knowledge, and one for choice. The maidens weren't bonded to the seasons – each one was bonded to a different relic and thereby gained the sole ability to use that relic. By bonding the relics to the maidens, they became safe from humans, good and evil alike."

All of the kids gaped at Raven. Unsurprisingly, Weiss was the first to find her words. " _You_ control one of the god's gifts to humanity? _Pyrrha does?_ "

"Yes."

"Which one?"

"The relic of knowledge." Raven leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "If I wanted to, I could enter Haven Academy, take the relic, and know anything and everything about this world. The only reason I choose not to is because unless I was _fully_ prepared, the flow of knowledge would most likely destroy my mind. I choose to stay ignorant. Pyrrha, if she kills Cinder or accesses the relic with her, would be able to use the relic of choice."

Pyrrha stirred at the revelation, looking from Raven to everyone else to the ceiling then back at her knees. "What does that even mean?" she mumbled. "People already have the power to choose, could I take it away?"

Raven nodded, and a collective shudder went down everyone's spine. "What does knowledge have to do with healing, though?" Blake asked.

"The majority of our powers still come from the magic given to the maidens by Ozpin. The fire, the ability to heal, all of it. Being tied to the relics just gives some maidens certain… affinities and weaknesses." Raven held out a hand and idly conjured a floating ball of blue light above it. "Even though I'm nowhere near the relic right now, I still instinctively know things I shouldn't. Mostly facts, although sometimes I get a glimpse of positioning or motivation. If I was holding the relic, I would be able to see a person's entire mind just by thinking about them. When I heal, I know how to repair the destroyed stump of a person's severed arm with no medical training and very little experience."

"That's so _cool_ ," Nora whispered, awe showing through her despair for a moment. "What about the other maidens?"

"Winter, who has creation, can create at will – plants, art and music, even a living animal if she puts some magic behind it. She would be the best out of the four at healing." Raven ticked a finger off, leaving two up. "Summer is the opposite with destruction. Augmented battle magic. She could beat anyone on Remnant in a battle of force, but trying to heal someone would probably kill them. And Fall… She has greater intuition, insight, but beyond that there's not much she can do without the relic."

"Besides wield auraless magic strong enough to destroy a city," Tai said dryly, and Raven laughed.

"Yeah. Besides that."

"How do you know all that?" Pyrrha whispered. "Amber didn't know any of that." Glynda flinched as Raven responded without missing a beat.

"Spring maiden. I know it because of my powers, no thanks to anyone else," she glowered, clenching her fist around the wispy flame. "Besides, I've been Spring for eleven years, and Amber had her powers for..."

"A year and a half," Glynda supplied, fiddling with her riding crop.

Raven shrugged. "Not that long."

Putting her plate down, Weiss sighed and pressed her fingers to her temple. Slowly, she said, "So I guess this means the gods _are_ real."

All of the adults nodded.

Weiss rose to her feet with a sigh. "So what you're telling me is that the defense I was in charge of leading ended in thousands of deaths, three of my close friends are dead, two are comatose, and one is maimed, _and_ I can't be an atheist anymore. I suppose I ought to blame my father for not believing in anything but money." Bowing her head, she swept up the stairs and out of sight.

Without somebody at her side, Nora sunk lower on the sofa and pulled her arms closer to her chest. Pyrrha rose abruptly and looked at Raven. "I… I need time to think about..."

Raven nodded and rose to her feet. She reached out and pressed her palm against Pyrrha's chest, closing her eyes. They both glowed red for a moment, then Raven stepped back. "I tagged you. I'll be back for you in an hour."

Nodding, Pyrrha turned on her heel and all but ran out the door.

"I guess breakfast is over then?" Tai asked, already moving to clear the coffee table.

"Yeah." Qrow turned to Glynda and fixed her with an intense glance. "Do you need to stay here and mourn, or can you come with me?"

Glynda shook her head, and the duo rose to their feet. "This… I needed this. Thank you, Tai. Let's go." Without waiting any longer, they followed Pyrrha out the door.

"I want to go back to Yang," Blake told Raven, and moments later they were gone as well.

Tai set the bowl of nearly untouched strawberries down next to the sink. Staring into the window ahead, he pressed his forehead to the window and groaned. _Gods…_ _What can I do?_ He lingered against the glass, then pushed off and returned to the living room, where Nora was the only one left. He moved to clear the rest of the food, then changed his mind and sat down beside the desolate girl. "Do you want to eat anything?" he asked her quietly.

Nora looked up at him, and Tai's heart broke as he saw her watering eyes. "The pancake recipe wasn't mine," she whispered. "It was Ren's." She swayed for a moment, then burst out into tears and flung herself onto the older hunter.

Tai did the only thing he could: hugged her as tight as he could and held on like her world depended on it.

* * *

"Harkan."

Qrow and Glynda stood shoulder to shoulder in front of a glowing cage of dusteel, expressions flat as they watched the creature within. Harkan rose to his feet slowly, looking down on the two hunters outside with an idle smirk. "Branwen. It would be you, of all people, who could have captured me. I suppose I ought to… applaud you."

"Don't waste your time," Qrow sneered.

Glynda rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "I don't suppose you'll tell us Salem's plans right off the bat?"

The Lich laughed harshly. "I couldn't care less about Salem's plan. I was promised Neopolitan in exchange for my services, and I gladly accepted. Your pitiful cage will not hold me, Qrow Branwen."

"Maybe not." Midday sun filtered into the dark room, sending a thin sliver across Qrow's red eyes. "But this will."

Glynda flipped a switch, and the entire room turned red as thick veins of dust crisscrossing the ceiling, floor, and walls burst to life. Turning back to Harkan, she narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm sure you know what this is."

"Olitan," Harkan sneered. "Of course he's been sitting on Sanian tech for the past millenium."

Qrow traced a hand down one of the veins. "I'm not going to pretend like I understand ancient tech like this. Hell, you, Ozpin, and Salem are the only ones who really remember old tech this advanced. All I know is that this chamber will block your aura and leave you defenseless."

Harkan's lip curled upwards in amusement. "How far humanity has fallen, to not even understand the greatness of their heritage. When Sania was at its height, this city and the cities to the south were home to tens of millions and stretched from the ridge to the sea. This room is nothing, hunters. Perhaps if Olitan cared to educate his pawns..."

Qrow's eyes hardened. "Rot in hell, Lich." Nodding at the door, he and Glynda swept out and pushed it shut, blocking out Harkan's laughter from behind.

Glynda looked from the door to her companion. "How long do you think we can hold him here?"

He shook his head and turned away. "As long as he wants to stay there, and not a second longer. Now, we just have to figure out why he hasn't run yet."

"Do you know?"

"No, but I have a damn good idea," Qrow said grimly.

* * *

 _Where are we, Neo?_

 _Roman. After Augustus, Roman was the only thing I had left._

The door clicked open, and Roman Torchwick stepped into the bedroom. He considered the light switch for a moment, then walked over and pulled the window shade open instead. The early morning Mistrali light filtered in, reflecting off the dust drifting through the stale air. He contemplated the illustrious view for a moment, then turned to the unconscious girl in one of Skulla's spare beds.

 _Why?_

That was the question Roman had been trying to answer since arriving back at the Mistrali compound. Their mission had been simple – kill the second most powerful and influential person on Anima behind Raven Branwen for five million lien in cards, no strings attached. Why would he have risked his get out of jail free card, his one-way-ticket out of Mistral and away from Skulla with Scarlett, for some bloody abused girl in Augustine's basement? He couldn't make heads or tails of it. He wasn't a risky man. He had plotted his entire life, built more failsafes into his plan than he could count, and yet he risked it all. _Why this girl?_

Suddenly anxious, he crouched at her bedside and pressed two fingers to her jugular. Breathing a sigh of relief as he found her pulse, he stepped back and contemplated her. _What the fuck did he do to her?_ She had been changed out of her filthy outfit, but her legs and feet were still crusted with mud and grime. Blood stains marked her mouth as if she was a vampire – if Roman hadn't known her tongue had been cut out, he would have found it downright terrifying.

Suddenly, the girl stirred, and he jumped back. Her eyes fluttered, then shot wide open. Roman gaped – one of her eyes was a deep, creamy brown and the other was iridescent pink.

 _Shit. You have_ got _to be kidding me. I just airdropped Augustine's hand out of his camp and gave her medical treatment._ Cursing his bad luck, Roman searched around wildly for his cane before realizing he had forgotten it in his room. _Forget dying in the camp, I guess this is the end._

A strangled noise from behind him made him spin around. The girl made another strangled noise, then her hands flew to her mouth. Roman watched her get more and more panicked, then sighed. _Gods, she's just a girl… Even if she's just small, nobody deserves torture like that. That monster deserved to get shot._ Deciding to end her panic, he said, "Your tongue was cut out. We got you out of there, but we couldn't regrow it. It's gone, I'm sorry."

The girl opened her mouth to speak again, then closed it. Frantically scrambling away from Roman, her eyes filled with tears.

 _Augustus? Raven?_

Roman jumped, wildly spinning around to see where the alien voice had come from. "Who said that?!" he demanded. "Who said Augustus?"

 _No. No no no no no. Not another one of them._

The alien thoughts burned in his conscience, and he slowly swiveled back to the girl on the bed. "Am I hearing you?" he whispered.

 _Please say you aren't._

"You aren't," Roman replied on instinct, then cursed himself. _This isn't a mind game with Scarlett, dumbass, you're dealing with one of the most dangerous people in the world!_

 _Roman Torchwick. Your name is Roman Torchwick._ The girl pulled herself further into the corner of her bed, knees coming up to meet her chest. _So I guess you killed Augustus, then. What are you going to do, finish the job he started? Murder me? Take the rest of the goddamn memories out of my head? Maybe you should cut off a limb this time, it'll be hard to top the tongue but you can do it._

Roman's stomach twisted with revulsion as images of the things she said floated through his mind. "What is this?" he whispered, pressing himself against the opposite wall.

The girl's lip twisted in disgust, and Roman yelped as her brown eye turned white. _Don't play games with me, Torchwick. You just want my aura bond, just like all of the other fuckholes. What are you going to make me do now, huh? I could murder every single criminal and thief in this building, I know you'd like that. It wouldn't even be that hard, I'd just…_

Roman tuned the girl out as she started graphically describing how she would kill every member of Skulla's mob he had ever met in detail far too specific for anyone besides him to ever know. _Aura bond._ He didn't know what it was, but he didn't like it. He really, really didn't like it.

 _What is your name?_

The girl paused mid-rant and looked at him in surprise. _What? My name? I… My name is…_ Roman and the girl stared at each other for a long moment, then the girl keeled over and shrieked at the top of her lungs. A maelstrom of violent emotion rammed the edge of his conscious before he blocked it out with as much power as he could muster. Even through his aura barrier, he could still hear her desperately shriek _HE TOOK IT! THE FUCKING BASTARD TOOK IT AWAY!_

 _Took it away? What the fuck?_

 _GO AWAY! I DON'T WANT YOU IN MY HEAD! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!_ A haze of shattered glass and ominously swirling mists burst to life around the girl, and Roman panicked.

 _"_ Got it, I'll be leaving right now then."Roman didn't know what Augustine's Hand's semblance was, but he sure as hell wasn't about to find out, strange connection or not. Yanking the door open, he threw himself out of the room and slammed it shut behind him. Jamming his thumb into the lock, he heaved a sigh of relief and leaned against the doorway. _Aura bond? What the hell have I gotten myself into?_

Inside the room, the screaming abruptly stopped. _You listened to me._

Roman blinked. "Well, I mean, I do value my life, so yeah," he drawled through the door, ready to make a break for it if she made any sign of coming towards him.

 _Thank you._ The genuine tone behind her gratitude caught him off-guard, and his brow furrowed. What the hell was going on with this girl? _Please… I need… space right now._

"Sure, works for me," Roman replied as it occurred to him that any idle bystander would think he was having a conversation with himself. Suddenly eager to get away from the girl and the room, he pushed off the door and started walking away.

 _They call me Neopolitan._

He stopped short at the sound of her- no, Neopolitan's voice, then doubled his pace, away from the strange dangerous girl who had turned his entire carefully planned life upside down in a single night.

 _Who the hell are you, Neopolitan?_

 _Where do we go from here?_


	3. Omake II (C32)

Omake II (C32)

* * *

re:Bound Plus

Allison Illuminated

Chapter Publish Date: 9/16/17

Beta: Vixie

* * *

 **Where in re:Bound – Part 2/6 of the Underground AU. Ruby and Neo are comatose. Ilia has just repledged herself to Adam. Blake has become a member of the Branwen Tribe to protect Yang. Pyrrha can't handle her powers. Nora is overcome with grief. Qrow and Glynda have locked Harkan away in an underground cell.**

 **Why it Was Cut – See** **part one.**

 **T** **W – See part one.**

* * *

Cinder lay still on the bullhead floor, head tilted towards the red light filtering in through the narrow window. The maiden's corona hung off her like an ill-fitting dress, warping and curdling under the noxious air and concentrating around where her arm used to be. The stump had been exposed just hours earlier, yet a layer of smooth white skin curved around the severed bones and arteries as if the maiden had been born armless. Every few seconds her face would twitch, murmuring things in her haze of pain.

Emerald stood unsteadily in the center of her room, an unquenchable pit of revulsion settled in her stomach. Her eyes were still wet from shed tears but hard. Mercury Black had been a partner and accomplice, an unbearable asshole of an assassin who was killed doing what he was paid to do. End of story. She wasn't grieving for him.

No, she couldn't come to terms with the woman lying before her. Cinder Fall had been everything to her since she had been _fourteen_. For seven years, she had fed her, trained her, taken her from being a street rat to being one of the most feared underground criminals on Remnant. She was the only person she would even consider calling a friend, even though that didn't feel like quite the right way to describe her leader.

Now, Emerald felt like she had been holding an illusion over her own eyes the whole time, and her world was falling apart around her.

First of all, Cinder Fall did not fail. Ever. Emerald had never won a single match against her. Her plans always went off not only well, but _smoothly_. She was the smartest person Emerald had ever met without a single year of formal schooling; even Watts, the technical mastermind, couldn't hold a candle to her. All of that wasn't even to mention her stupid fucking overpowered semblance… In the span of six months, Cinder had taken the kingdom of Vale from tranquility to a full-out race war simply with Emerald's semblance and the manipulation of the CCT to propagandize faunus brutalization, then turn it into an actual war by killing the same faunus with Atlas' war machines. All of that seemed to have turned to ash.

Everything had been leading up to Cinder taking on the powers of the Fall Maiden, and she was foiled by Pyrrha Nikos and three first year huntsmen trainees. If Emerald had been knocked unconscious by the ginger, she would just be dead.

Had she failed Cinder? Had Cinder failed her? Had they both failed Salem, and were on their way to a gory death?

Did it even matter? It had been hitting her in slow waves: _she had started a genocide and a world war_. More than that: she had done it because of Cinder. Cinder, who had stood and watched as Penny was ripped apart with a smirk. Cinder, who casually committed the deaths of thousands of people. Cinder, the maiden who killed Ozpin. Cinder, her only family, the only person who loved her, who cared for her.

How could she even begin to reconcile those images? How could she deal with Cinder now that she had seen her true capabilities?

Sure, Emerald had watched Cinder burn people and Grimm alive, but even that just seemed like a woman playing with more fire than a normal person could handle. But watching her rise into the sky like the sun and battle with the force of the gods, hot enough to turn the battlefield far below into a furnace, terrified some primeval part of her. Something that bound her to Cinder fell away in that moment, the dazed haze after the hammer strike where she watched the maidens duel in the sky.

Humans didn't have magic. Magic was for Salem and Ozpin and maidens and gods and Emerald had never been more afraid in her life. Cinder was human, Cinder was magic, Cinder was her, she was Salem's, and Emerald had utterly failed them both because she couldn't figure out which one was real.

She had brought Cinder to the bullhead and they fled with Hazel. For sixteen torturous hours, she had sat by Cinder's side and watched as a bloody mangled stump turned to pure fire and reconstructed itself without aura or doctors. Cinder should have died from that wound. Now she stared at the unblemished skin and wanted to rip it apart, wanted to tear it away.

She had failed Cinder. Cinder had failed her. That was all she was certain of anymore.

Cinder Fall was a maiden, and she had failed her most important task. Mercury, the only other stable anchor in her life, was dead. Her semblance, which she thought worked only on a single person for her entire life, had shown the same illusion to two people. Now she was on a plane to the worst place in the world to meet the queen of evil for the third time in her life.

In other words, her entire world had shattered in a single day.

"Emerald." Her lip curled up in disgust as she turned to face Hazel, who was casually leaning in the cockpit doorway. "We've arrived." He studied her expression for a moment, then nodded. "I'll carry Cinder. Salem will be waiting." He stooped down to pick up the maiden up, then gestured back at her. She met his eyes for a lingering moment, then turned and stepped out of the plane.

Three servants stood outside of the bullhead waiting with a gravity dust stretcher. Their faces were bleached true white, and black tattoos marred their features. "We will take her," one of them said. "Our master is in the throne room." Nodding, Hazel unceremoniously dropped Cinder onto the stretcher, then stepped back and inclined his head to Emerald slightly.

Emerald stared fearfully back at him, not understanding what was happening.

Hazel sighed and stepped closer to her. "Salem doesn't take weakness kindly," he murmured. "Cinder will be punished for her failure. If you can't compose yourself, your death will be a part of it."

"But-"

"Salem will test you," he said, shaking her head. "I suggest you try not to fail."

Emerald stared at him for a long moment. _This is a test_. Suddenly, years of training came back to her and she nodded. _You can do this. You've been working your entire life to be able to do this._

 _'Cinder will be punished for her failure.'_ Suddenly, Emerald understood. _He's answering my question. It doesn't matter what I think, all that matters is that failure is punished._

Had she failed Cinder?

No. Cinder was a maiden, and she was only human. She refused to die in the dark.

Hardening her resolve, she walked into the palace looming above them with Hazel following close behind. Cinder had failed her test. She wouldn't fail hers. She told herself it over and over again as they passed bloody doors and dim torches. Cinder wouldn't want her to fail her test – that, at least, she could still cling to.

The obsidian doors to the throne room slammed open. Emerald strode into the vaulted throne room with Hazel close behind, building all her self-control into the strongest mask she could. At the long table before the throne, only Tyrian sat; at her entrance, he took one look at her and burst out into maniacal laughter. Emerald wavered for a moment, then ignored him and went straight to the foot of the throne. Kneeling, she bowed her head. "Salem."

Salem, lady of the Grimm, lazily gestured to her with two fingers to rise. "Emerald Sustrai. I see that you have… _returned_." She surveyed the room for a long moment, then commanded, "Inform me of what has happened."

"Oh, I know what happened," Tyrian cackled, perching further at the edge of his chair. "Cinder and her little minions f-"

"Silence, Tyrian." Salem rose to her feet, shadowing Emerald beneath her as she pointed to the thief. "I want to hear it from _her_." Red eyes met red eyes. "What was the outcome of your mission?"

Emerald bit her tongue but kept her face straight as she stared right back at the most powerful woman on Remnant. _What happened? Cinder… She… Oh._ Narrowing her eyes, she lifted her chin, she desperately prayed that she could somehow make it out of the Grimmlands alive. Tension built as she took a long breath, then spoke.

"Cinder failed."

The room was silent for a moment, then Tyrian burst out laughing again. Emerald quickly broke eye contact with Salem as she sank back into her throne, an intrigued expression playing across her face. "Indeed she did. I can assure you that she will be punished accordingly." A smirk played across the Grimm Queen's lips, and Emerald shivered. "If your timely intervention hadn't saved our maiden, our plans would have been lost. Now, though…"

Standing up, Salem swept down the podium. Emerald's throat twisted as she stopped next to her, speaking directly into her ear. "You sparked a war and brought Vale to its knees, Emerald Sustrai," she hissed, her voice taking on an inhuman lilt. "I know what your semblance is capable of. You are a dangerous woman, yet you are nothing but a pawn."

Blood red light set Emerald's face in glass. She was alone and utterly on her own for the first time in years. _Dangerous._ She knew perfectly well what happened when people were dangerous. Either they rose to the top or they were killed.

She hadn't come this far to die standing up. Cinder hadn't brought her his far to die like this.

"No."

Salem inclined her head upwards. "Really?" Walking past Emerald, she silenced Tyrian with a gesture as Emerald stood stock-still. "I remember when Cinder came to me. So young, so scared, so… _alone_. It seems she has found herself in her followers. You carry her potential."

Salem snapped her fingers, and Emerald's body turned rigid as black magic swirled around her body, forcing her chin upwards and constraining her breathing. Emerald panicked, twitching wildly as she fought futily to free herself. Tyrian's laughter returned, and he met her eyes gleefully. She glared back at him with as much anger as she could muster.

" _I know you_ ," the queen hissed, black aura twisting to life around her body as she stepped towards Emerald. "You were ambitious, once. A skilled thief, making a name for yourself on the streets of Vale… But I wonder… What do you want, Emerald? What do you _desire_?"

 _You're nothing but a well-trained bitch too busy begging at your owner's feet to think about what she's telling you to do._ Dane's words echoed in her mind as her angry expression turned hollow. What did she want?

 _What do I want?_

 _You don't know_ , Dane seemed to leer at her. _You're just a Gem for somebody else's crown._

"More." The word slipped from her lips unbidden, and it took a few moments to realize she meant it. She would _never_ let Dane Lilac prove himself right again. It wasn't just Dane though… In that moment, Emerald grasped the realization she had been searching for the whole flight: she couldn't be blind to Cinder anymore. Narrowing her eyes, she looked at Salem. "I'm nobody's bitch," she whispered, barely loud enough for herself to hear. " _Nobody_."

Salem held her gaze for a moment, then her lip curled upwards and she released her magic. Emerald fell to all fours, gasping desperately for air against the frigid obsidian floor. The Grimm Queen retook her throne and idly surveyed the room. "Hazel. Show Emerald to her room."

Numb, Emerald rose to her feet and followed Hazel out of the throne room. They walked through the palace for a long time before he led her to a small room with a simple bed and bathroom. Pushing the door open, he met her eyes for a moment. "You did well," he said gruffly. "Don't screw it up. Salem doesn't like failure."

Emerald bowed her head as he swept passed her. "I won't fail," she said, clenching her fists at her side.

 _I won't fail._

 _Not like Cinder._

* * *

"Roman, it's time."

Roman frowned into the mirror, scrutinizing his appearance as his partner glared at him through the reflection. Tipping his bowler hat, he drawled, "How do I look?"

Scarlett Farr rolled her eyes, tapping her toe against the ground impatiently. "You know I think you look better in black than white."

"I _really_ didn't need your opinion right now." Standing up, he pushed away from the dresser as she shook her head.

"You asked."

Roman shot her his best condescending look. "Aren't you supposed to boost my confidence before we talk to Skulla? I thought you were supporting me here."

"And I'm _supporting_ you by pulling your head out of your ass," Scarlett shot back, ushering him out of the door.

"Truly, I'm hurt, Farr."

She couldn't hide a small laugh as she pulled the door shut behind them. "Anytime, Torchwick."

Roman and Scarlett walked side-by-side through the corridors of Skulla's compound. Mistral stretched out below them in all its glory; the compound sat atop the second tallest mountain in the city with a jaw-dropping view of the depths below and the academy above. Criminals of all walks of life jumped out of the way as they passed by.

Roman had, after all, just killed one of the most powerful people on Anima.

As they drew closer to the central room, Roman pulled Scarlett closer to him. "Scar, I need you to trust me on something," he murmured, eyes flicking side to side to make sure nobody was eavesdropping.

Scarlett tensed. "Oh, this better be good."

"Whatever you do, no matter _what_ Skulla does or says, _don't mention the girl._ "

Stopping short, she grabbed his blazer and pulled him to the side of the corridor. "What the hell do you mean, don't mention the girl?" she hissed. "Roman, she al-"

"No, she doesn't."

" _Excuse me?_ " she whisper-screeched.

Roman smirked. "I _may_ have bribed the healers _just_ a little bit." Her expression grew murderous, and his smirk deepened. "Ten thousand."

Scarlett Farr, world class thief, squeaked. "Roman Torchwick, what in the trenches is it with you and this girl?" she hissed after she regained her composure.

"Look, I- I'll tell you after, okay?" He leaned closer to her, his voice dropping. "I talked to her this morning and figured some things out. Things I can't say here. Please, Scar..."

She met his eyes for a long moment, then scowled. "You better know what you're getting us into."

Roman scoffed. "I haven't got the slightest clue." Pulling away, he fell back into his normal demeanor, theatrically extending a hand out to Scarlett. "Now, are you ready to be filthy rich?"

She shook her head and took his hand. "Damn right I am." The duo drew closer together than before, and walked the rest of the way to Skulla's room. The doors were red and silver and golden, decorated in traditional Mistrali fashion. Roman squeezed her hand, then they broke apart and pushed the doors open.

Skulla's lair was the size of a ballroom with low ceilings, firmly nested in the middle of the compound. A fully functional bar sat to one side, the tables surrounding it filled with people and faunus alike drinking and gambling. To the left, a live band played surrounded by couches. Roman caught sight of a dozen of Mistral's men lazily smoking weed around a ring of couches, accomplices playing poker with people he'd helped them steal from. Floating dust crystals illuminated the room in dimly lit colors turned hazy by the smoky air, and Mistrali décor gave the room its eastern feel.

"Roman Torchwick!"

Every person in the room fell silent as Roman and Scarlett strode towards the elevated dias where the leaders of the Mistrali underground sat. Spreading his arms wide, he spun around and called, "Guess who's back?"

The room erupted in conversation as they stopped at the foot of the dias. Skulla held up a hand to silence it. "I know what job you were taking. Did you succeed?"

Roman smirked at the underground leader and nodded. "Augustus Augustine is dead."

Skulla bowed her head. "Then you have Bella," she whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

"Huh?"

Astral Skulla, leader of the Mistrali underground and core of the Branwen Tribe, rose from her throne. A skull mask covered her nose and mouth, and her lilac hair whipped around behind her as she gestured to the guards. Roman yelped as he and Scarlett were surrounded by heavily armed humans, instinctively going back to back with each other. "Where is Bella?" Astral asked commandingly. Her aura violently flared around her as she stalked down the stairs, the same lilac as her hair, pure rage scrawled across her face.

Roman had never been more afraid in his life. He searched his thoughts for a long moment, then realized she must have been talking about the girl. Suddenly he felt cold. _What the hell_ did _I get_ _us_ _into?_ _And why did she call herself Neopolitan?_ Forcing every bit of skill he'd acquired in his life into his poker face, he said, "I'm sorry, _who_?"

Moments later, he was being held by a burly guard with a dagger held to his jugular. Astral's face was dangerously dark. "I asked you, what did you do with Bella Branwen?" she nearly shrieked into his face, and his fear slipped into his expression.

"Look, Skulla, _I don't know who the fuck you're talking about,_ " he stammered, eying the dagger, "so I would _really_ appreciate it if you didn't kill me right now."

Scarlett was less discrete. "We were on a fucking assassination mission, why would we have done anything but kill Augustus and get out?" she yelled, struggling violently against the guard holding her. Roman swore to buy her something nice once they got out of this lovely situation – _thank god she hasn't mentioned the girl._

Astral blinked, studying his face for a long moment, then narrowed her eyes. "When you killed him, did you feel anything strange?"

 _Yes._ "No."

The first glimpses of uncertainty showed on Astral's face, and she took a step back. "If you are lying to me, I will skin you, tar you, then quarter you alive and feed your torso the Grimm," she snarled, sending a shiver down his spine.

Roman's eyes hardened; she hadn't seen through the lie, now he just had to sell it. "We were waiting for Branwen to attack," he said, his voice losing its playful edge. "My man called me, we flew in, I shot Augustine, and we left. End of story."

For a moment, he reflected that if he hadn't spent his entire life perfecting the art of lying he would have been dead right now.

Astral's hand wavered. "And you haven't seen, felt, talked to, _anything_ with a girl with brown hair and multicolored eyes?"

 _We're so fucked._ Roman shook his head. "No."

Astral met his eyes for a long moment, then the fight went out of her body. Slamming the dagger back into its sheath, she slowly returned to the top of the dais and held up her fist. The room fell silent in instants. Clearing her throat, she raised her chin high as her eyes burned. "Bella Branwen is dead," she roared, "killed by Augustus Augustine! Augustine is dead, and the war is finally over! Long live Raven Branwen, Nevermore Queen of Anima! Long live the Branwen tribe!"

The room erupted. The Underground wasn't exclusively tribe-led, but the Branwen Tribe and tribe-sympathizers dominated the syndicate. Once Augustine members were welcomed as well, but after Bella Branwen had been found in Augustus' bond, they had been purged by Skulla and her loyals. People were screaming, crying, rejoicing for the end of a three year war that had brought every tribe of Anima into the Branwen Tribe.

Scarlett and Roman exchanged a look that they both understood perfectly: _we're so fucking dead._

The leader of the Underground stumbled backwards and collapsed into her throne, massaging her temples with her hands. The guards seemed disoriented and let the duo go – instantly, they gravitated nearer to each other. "We need to get out of here," Scarlett whispered into his ear. Roman nodded, and she lifted her chin up. "We killed Augustine. The bounty was fifty million lien," she called up to Astral. "Where's our reward?"

Astral's head shot up to look at them, tears dripping from the corners of her eyes. " _Reward_?!" she screeched. "You think you're getting a _fucking reward_ for this?" Before either of them could move, she stalked down the podium and lifted them both up into the air with her bare hands. In a deadly whisper, she asked, "Do you know _why_ there was a fifty million lien reward out for his head?" Eyes burning a furious lilac, she pulled them both closer. "The whole job was to save one person's life and you. j _ust._ FAILED!"

Roman and Scarlett hit the ground hard, rolling towards the door through a crowd of people. They parted around the criminals as Skulla yelled, "You have one day to get out of Mistral – no, get off of Anima! After that, if I ever see you two again I will kill you myself! Leave!"

Roman and Scarlett sprinted out of the Underground as fast as they could. Tearing across the plateau, they made for their Bullhead and took off as fast as they possibly could. It wasn't until they took flight and headed for their building on the outskirts of Mistral that Scarlett exploded.

"THE GIRL YOU TOOK FROM AUGUSTINE IS BELLA FUCKING BRANWEN?!"

"I DIDN'T KNOW!" Roman screamed back, flying as recklessly as he dared. The mountains of Mistral spiraled past before he brought the bullhead into a nosedive towards a squat gray building in the middle of a raised steppe.

"HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW THAT?" They sprinted out of the Bullhead and into the building.

"Her eyes were closed and she couldn't exactly tell me!" Roman shot back, slightly winded as they stopped in the entry hall.

A fist connected with his face, and he staggered back as Scarlett gave him a murderous glance. "Fuck you. Now we have to leave the fucking kingdom, trencher. Get your shit and get back into the bullhead."

Roman sighed, nursing his cheek. "Shit," he muttered, closing his eyes. All of his plans died the second he thought of them. "How are we supposed deal with a Branwen? If anyone ever finds out, we'll have a price on our heads just as big as Augustus'!"

Scarlett glared at him. "That sounds like a you problem," she snarled. "You dragged her out of a warzone, you get to deal with her." Turning on her heel, she stalked up the stairs to her rooms.

Roman stared at where she had been for a long time. _Well, that didn't go the way that I expected._

How was he supposed to get Branwen off of the continent?

 _Ruby blinked as Neo interrupted the memory. Where there had only been void before, the world around her_ existed _, even if it was only a soft gray with aimlessly floating masses of matter. "How did he get you off off the continent, Neo?"_

 _Neo grinned wolfishly at her. "Let's just say I gave him a nice scar on his arm before he realized he could just tell me to leave. I was a… little crazy right after Augustus died."_

 _She gulped. "Do I want to know?"_

 _"No, Rose, you really, really don't."_

* * *

Blake was dozing by Yang's bedside when she felt movement by her elbow. Shooting awake, her eyes widened as her girlfriend stirred restlessly below her. "Silo!" she called, and the burly healer rushed over.

"Is she waking up?" he asked, and she nodded. He beckoned for an assistant to come over, then said to him, "Go find Raven and bring her here."

As Yang's eyelids began to flutter, Blake laced their fingers together and held her breath. _Please don't hate me._ Lilac eyes met hazel, and Yang whispered, "Blake?"

Blake gave her a worried smile, squeezing her hand a little harder. "Hi Yang," she whispered back, her voice cracking with emotion.

"What happened?"

She squeezed Yang's hand as tight as she could. "I fought Adam after you went down. I lost, but we managed to escape."

Yang's eyes widened. She tried to sit up, only to fall back into bed in exhaustion. Feebly, she asked, "Did he hurt you?"

Blake bit her lip, debating for a moment, then nodded. Barely breathing an answer, she said, "He stabbed me in the abdomen, but I'm okay."

Yang closed her eyes and sunk back into her bed. "Then I failed. I said I would protect you, and I failed."

Blake's face twisted in agony and she threw herself onto Yang, wrapping her arms tight around her partner's body. "I'm here," she whispered fiercely into Yang's ear. "I'm here right now, and that's all that matters."

They held each other for a long time. Eventually, Yang managed to whisper, "I'm not okay, am I?" When Blake hesitated, she murmured, "Tell me. Please. If I… if I have to find out myself, if I hear from anyone but you, I- I-" Yang's voice cracked. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle it."

 _No… Yang, please don't make me say it, it's my fault, please…_ Blake's thoughts trailed off and she tightened her grip around her. _This isn't about me,_ she realized. Closing her eyes, she whispered, "He cut your arm off, Yang. It's gone. I'm sorry."

Yang opened her eyes and started trying to sit up again. "I need to see,"

Blake pulled back and helped Yang prop herself up on her sole elbow. They both stared at the wrapped stump, which Yang tentatively moved around as if to confirm nothing was attached. In a dead voice, she said, "It's gone."

Blake bowed her head. "Yeah," she whispered, the unbidden _I'm sorry_ dying on her lips. _This isn't about you,_ she whispered to herself forcefully again.

The couple stared at each other for a long time, expressions of equal desolation written on their faces. At some point, their hands found one another, giving some tiny comfort in the face of impossible darkness. Finally, Yang managed to ask, "Where are we?"

"With the Branwen Tribe." Blake and Yang turned to see Raven standing off to one side of the bed. The Nevermore Queen's hair was down without her usual hairband, her usual armor missing in favor of a dark red dress with a belt around the waist still holding her sword. Yang's breath caught as her mom approached the bed, red eyes meeting lilac. "I-"

"Mom," Yang murmured.

Raven wavered in place, then nodded unsteadily. "Yang…"

Her daughter nodded back. After a long silence, she said, "Ruby… Ruby told me everything. About you and Dad."

"I'm sorry," Raven whispered.

Uncertainty filled the air as Yang stared at her mom with a lost expression for a long moment. "You..." She trailed off, then spoke again. "You broke your promise."

"You were going to die," Raven responded. "You lost so much blood, and I was worried that… that you weren't going to make it. We didn't think you were going to make it."

"But you saved me."

"I-"

Yang cracked a broken smile. "You saved me. You came back for me." Her attention turned to Blake. "You both did."

Blake shook her head, ears flattening against her head as she pulled herself tight against Yang again. Raven bit her lip, her expression softening. "You're my daughter, I… I could never let you die like that."

Yang swayed in Blake's embrace, desperately searching for words she didn't know how to say. "Mom..." She took a deep shuddering breath. "Could you..." Unable to finish her sentence, she reached out to Raven with her only arm. Hesitating for a moment, Raven rushed forwards and embraced both of them. Yang clung to her mother and her girlfriend, anchoring herself against the pain and unbearable loss, and didn't let go.

It didn't matter how long it would take, or whether anything would ever be normal again. Yang hadn't woken up alone, and that was all that mattered.

* * *

Few things made Weiss more depressed than rooms with the curtains drawn during the day.

Ruby and Neo were just as motionless as earlier; the only difference was now the IV drips, ventilators, and heart monitors had been set up from Patch Hospital. Weiss wasn't sure what it reminded her of. Maybe it was her mother siting alone in her tower with a bottle of brandy, or maybe watching her uncle die after a White Fang attack three years ago. Maybe it was just the three other times she had watched her partner while she was unconscious in the infirmary.

Sighing, she leaned back in her chair, pressed her head against the wall, and stared at the ceiling. _Is this really the fourth time she's gone and hurt herself and I've sat around watching her?_

 _"_ _I'm not even really your partner, am I?"_ The further they got from the massacre, the more Weiss wished she could take back everything she had said the night before the protest. How could she have let Ruby run off on her own again? How could she have let her entire team get hurt but her _again?_ Staring at Ruby and Neo lying comatose together, thinking about Blake and Yang together with Raven, it was hard not to feel like she wasn't a part of WYBRV at all.

"I didn't really mean it," she told Ruby. For some reason, the bitter taste refused to go away.

They had defended the protesters. They had gone up against the real villains, the ones who had brought Vale to its knees, and paid the price for it. What had she done? Fought a bunch of robots and saved people from the wreckage. _Stop it, that's stupid. People are_ alive _because of you. Stop blaming yourself._

Still…

Suddenly, the room was light. Nora sighed as she turned back to look at her, her hand still on the drapes. "You were sitting in the dark," she said softly.

Weiss sat up in her seat, arms awkwardly crossed in her lap. For a long moment, they watched Neo and Ruby before Weiss finally spoke. "Thank you."

Nora sat down at her side with a weak shrug, gripping the edge of the seat. "Taiyang said that nobody should be alone right now." Weiss shrugged back, but shifted closer to the other girl anyways. They sat apart for a long second, then Nora leaned towards Weiss and rested her head on her shoulder.

"I wish Yang was here. Raven said I wasn't allowed to come to the tribe, but..." Weiss sighed again, and Nora took her hand.

"She's your best friend, I get it." A deep sadness filled her words, something Weiss could barely comprehend.

"I'm so sorry about Ren," she whispered.

"I think I'm in denial. He's just… He… We've been together since we were ten, ever since…" Nora trailed off.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"We both grew up in a place called Kuroyuri." Weiss fell silent as Nora's voice grew far away. "I never knew my parents; I lived in an orphanage for years before they kicked me out, and then I lived on the streets for a year and a half. That was when the Grimm attacked… It wasn't even a horde, it was one of the real monsters, the… the ones they don't like telling people about because they're afraid the fear might draw them closer."

Weiss felt cold. "What was it?"

"A Nuckelavee."

"Oh my gods," she whispered.

"Ren saved me." Nora's expression grew even glassier. "His semblance hid us even when the Grimm were right next to us. I was panicking, and he brought me a toy hammer some unluckier kid had dropped running away. That's why I chose Manghild as my weapon. We wandered for a long time after that, working in inns or anywhere else that would let two little kids work. Anima used to be a lot safer than it is now… As long as we stayed away from the dangerous tribes, Branwen and Augustine mostly, we were fine. Then the Tribe War started when we were fifteen, and we had to escape to Mistral to stay out of it." Nora's hand tightened around hers. "We were trenchers for a year and a half."

Weiss' eyes widened. "Nora, I had no idea..."

"You're smart, you know about the Mistrali class system." Nora's lips twisted bitterly. "Ren was so sad after his parents were killed, so I always tried to be happy to he could be happy too. Even when we lived in the depths, I was always cheerful and he was always calm. Whenever I got sad, he would use his semblance and I would keep him from getting depressed. Without him, we would both probably be dead. It used to be an act sometimes, but not anymore. I like being happy all the time, but it's hard sometimes."

Her eyes fell from Ruby to her lap. "Mistral has four classes, right? The upper class lives on top of the mountains, all the really rich people and the hunters. Normal people live along the sides, and the lower class lives inside of the mountains. Trenchers don't even live inside the mountains – we live down in the chasms and ravines below the mountains, in the old ruins of the Animan empire. That's where the tribes come from: the last of the true Animans, the ones who survived the fall of the empire. Thing is, the tribes won't even accept trenchers. The only way out is to join one of the syndicates and work until they free you. At least the lower classes can get jobs working in the upper class. Even they treated us like dirt."

"I never said anything, but when we first got our teams I really hated Pyrrha." Weiss started at that, but waited for Nora to keep talking. "I mean, she was Mistral's Golden Girl, she was from one of the richest families, she won the kingdom tournament five times… Even _we_ heard about her parties, the tabloids loved her. If she knew we were trenchers, we weren't sure if she would ever talk to us again. Like, it would be a full-blown scandal back in Mistral." Nora sighed. "I really only ever talked to Ren about it because we were afraid if we told somebody else it would get back to her eventually. Obviously things are different now, but..."

The sun dipped below the top of the window frame, sending a beam of light across the comatose girls in the bed. Nora let go of Weiss' hand, and they sat back into their own chairs. Weiss sorted through her thoughts for a moment, then asked, "I thought that trenchers never leave the depths. How did you guys get out?"

"We stowed away on a plane to Vale. Nobody cares who anybody else is here. It's so different from Mistral. People here care about individuals, not class, and we managed to find work for the first time in years. We applied for a Beacon scholarship and told Ozpin our story, and we got it. You know everything after that," Nora said, waving her hand at the room around them.

"Vale is different from Atlas too," Weiss agreed, her thoughts drifting back to her father. "Everything is about companies and the military. As long as you're in good standings with one of the corporations, you don't have to worry about food or the cold. Everyone else either joins the military or has to fend for themselves."

Nora nodded, and Weiss could tell she was relieved to not be talking about herself. "What about Mantle?"

Weiss' expression darkened slightly. "I suppose Atlas is weird. We _are_ the only kingdom with two major cities – Vale has Basin and Notch to the south, but they're both minor cities so they don't really count. Being from Mantle is… undesirable, I guess."

"It makes you a second class citizen," Nora interjected, narrowing her eyes. "Blake told me that mostly faunus live there."

"That's accurate," Weiss said, her tone growing detached. "I know I am personally biased because of my family, but too many of my family members and friends have been killed by terrorists and White Fang members from Mantle. Blake has helped me get over it a bit, but it's been… challenging, living in Vale where people are resentful against Atlas from the Great War. I imagine that..." Unable to come up with words, she waved her hands wildly at the world around them. "This will only make those tensions worse."

"I guess so." They were quiet for a long time before Nora spoke again. "I'll be back to normal soon," she whispered. "I hate being sad like this. Ren always hated it when I was sad like this. Then I can cheer you up and help Pyrrha and we can move forwards."

"It's okay to be sad," Weiss tried to say, but Nora shook her head and rose to her feet.

"Before today, I hadn't cried since Kuroyuri," she said, moving back to the windowsill. "I don't need to cry again. Ren was amazing, but he was also always at peace with himself. I think being here, coming to Beacon, I'm at peace with myself too." The sun silhouetted her body and turned her orange hair gold. She opened the window. "You understand, don't you, feeling for other people? That's what I choose. That's what Ren would have wanted."

Nora turned, smiled at Weiss, and left the room. The girl left behind could help but smile back, warmed by the sunlight beaming on her face, curtains drifting in the breeze.

* * *

Ilia sat on the edge of a wide metal beam, staring at the open hangar below her. Her skin was a gentle black, perfectly blending into the shadows of the arced ceiling. On the ground, thousands of people were sprawled along the unadorned ground, some sleeping and some huddled together making terse conversation. They sat or laid down on anything they could find; blankets, jackets, backpacks, anything. At the far end, the massive dusteel doors were tightly sealed, a comforting yet ominous reminder of the ever-present threat right beyond the bunker.

Thirty thousand. The protest had been attending by several hundred thousand people, and just thirty thousand had made it out of Vale alive. She knew there were probably people who had somehow managed to survive in the city but between the massacre, the falling ships, and the Grimm, she wasn't optimistic. She was strangely detached and unemotional, thoughts cycling from the devastation to her complacency to the survivors and back again. It was stupid to blame herself or Blake, she had to keep telling herself, even though they both knew and neither of them stopped it. All she could do was move forwards and fight for her species' survival.

She would keep fighting, even if it meant she never got a chance to greive.

"Ilia."

Adam sat down beside her, but she didn't turn to look at him. Pulling her leg up, she balanced her chin on her knee. "How did you find me?"

He scoffed. "We've been working together for ten years. If I didn't know how to find you by now, I'd be a shitty excuse for a leader."

"I guess so." She turned to look at Adam: her commander and one of her closest friends. They had always been a team, him, her and Blake. The trio had slowly risen through the ranks, staying together even as Adam surpassed them both to become a leader. After Blake had left, she and Adam had kept getting closer up until he had become the commander of Vale and she had been sent to be the deputy commander of Menagerie. They had worked apart for a year, then Adam had brought her back to Vale as deputy commander to work on the protest. If it wasn't for the taint of Adam's role in the attack…

Adam bowed his head to survey the ground below, the X-shaped scar across his face shadowed in the light. "You knew about the attack," he said. "I know you told Blake. You weren't even subtle about it." His voice sounded curiously angerless, and she was instantly put on edge. _He knew? He should be angry. Why isn't he angry?_

"You knew about the attack." Her voice came out too angry, too confrontational, but she didn't care. "You planned the attack. You planned the attack with _humans._ You planned the attack with the _Grimm_. Look at what happened. We lost as many faunus as a quarter of the population of Menagerie and for what? How does this help our cause? Why?"

He turned to look at him, and she shivered at the fire she saw in his eyes. "Ilia, if you weren't who you are and we weren't so short on men, I would kill you for betraying me. Because of the situation, though, I'm willing to forgive you. You have a choice. If you want to leave, you can walk out of those doors in the morning and you can stay out of all of this."

Ilia stared at him for a long moment then shook her head. "I can't leave these people behind. They're just civilians, Adam. If our hunters start abandoning them..."

He nodded. "We can't show weakness right now," he murmured, showing vulnerability for a rare moment. "Thank you, for not turning your back on me like Blake did. Everything I've done has been for our people, and there's no turning back now."

"How was-"

"How was it for our people?" Adam interjected. "If I hadn't struck a deal with the humans, the White Fang would be dead right now."

Ilia stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"It was right after Blake disappeared. You remember how I said my entire team died on the SDC train raid when Blake ran?" She nodded. "They didn't die in the raid. They were killed by the humans. If I hadn't struck a deal, they threatened to kill the entire Vale branch." Ilia's spots turned green. Adam bowed his head. "This wasn't a massacre. This was the first battle in a war that we _can't afford to lose_."

"Who knew?"

"Me and Dane Lilac. Nobody else," Adam said.

Ilia blinked. "I thought Dane left the Fang to become a hunter."

"He went undercover." Adam's lip twisted bitterly. "It was all a farce to completely disable the Atlesian Military. The protest was designed to draw it to Vale. Dane used his history to get close to Ironwood, killed him, and impersonated him. The humans used their virus to get all of Atlas' data and to take control of the robots. Ironwood didn't kill Sienna and Lilianne, Dane did. We took out half of their navy, crippled their largest trade partner, killed their leadership, and hopefully will force them to close their borders."

By the end, Ilia was staring at him open-mouthed. Unable to come up with a response, she simply asked, "Where's Dane?"

"Dead. I killed him."

She nodded, disgusted even as the cynical part of her mind acknowledged the necessity. "And now what?" she asked.

"Now we get what we were promised," Adam said grimly, "and we take what is ours until we can turn on the humans that made us slaughter our own and kill them all."

 _He's not on the human's side._ The revelation washed over Ilia in a wave of calm, and suddenly she could believe in what Adam was saying again. "And what were we promised?"

"Mistral."

The silence stretched on for a full minute. _They promised him an entire kingdom?_ After everything he had told her, the idea didn't even seem crazy anymore. "How?"

Adam nodded, as if confirming that he already knew what she would say. "The humans have Lionheart in their pocket. In the next month, every hunter will be sent out on a mission, where they will be intercepted by human assassins and killed. I will return to Mistral to take the throne as soon as these people are stable. The humans will take over the Underground at the same time. Then, at the end of July, the council will fall and Haven Academy will be destroyed on the same night, and the White Fang will take over the rule of the kingdom."

Once again, Ilia found herself speechless. "The end of July? That's in a month!"

Adam nodded. "We've been planning this for a year. Both us and the humans have been seeding and buying men inside of the Underground. Mistral has fewer hunters right now than any time since the end of the Great War. We still have thousands of Fang members in the city, and every Fang member who made it out of the protest alive will be there. Communications will be down, Atlas and Vale are both occupied, and the Grimm are less of a threat there than they are here."

"In other words, nobody can stop us," Ilia said, and he tilted his head with a slight smirk. "When do we leave?"

"In two days."

"And who's going to protect the people who are still here?" she asked.

"Corsac and the Belladonnas will." Adam surveyed the crowd below. "Once we've secured the kingdom, we'll bring them all to Mistral where they'll be safe. Signus Crane has already agreed to take over the Vale branch, and I've put him in charge of returning to Vale and gathering all of the survivors there."

The question couldn't be avoided any longer. "And what about me?" she asked softly. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because," he said, drawing himself higher and fixing her with an intense glance, "as High Leader of the White Fang, I'm promoting you to Commander of the Mistral branch of the Fang."

Ilia froze. "Commander? Adam, I-"

"You've been perfectly capable of leading our people for years," he interjected. "Ilia, you're a leader. We've always been leaders, and look at where we are now! I'm High Commander and now I _need_ you. I need somebody who will trust me no matter what, who knows that I am _always_ working for the Fang and the faunus. I thought Blake was that person, and she wasn't. Even after she left us, though, she still was the spark for our cause. Without the video, none of this would have happened."

"She gave you that scar, didn't she?" Ilia asked. Adam nodded with a violent scowl, and she sighed. "You're going to kill her the next time you see her."

"I need to know if I can trust you," he said. "I need to know if you can trust me back, or whether you'll abandon me just like Blake did. Thousands of people have already died for this and thousands more will die before this is over. Will you become my second in command?"

Ilia's stomach twisted as the weight of the death she would be responsible for settled on her shoulders. _It's inevitable. Nothing I do can change what had been set into motion._ Looking down at the people below her, she knew that it was too late for her to turn back. _I will be strong for them. I can lead, just like Adam, just like Blake._

Could she kill Blake if she had to?

She turned to Adam. "I'll do it. I'll become your commander."

"Thank you." He rose to his feet and turned away from her. "We leave in two days. Be ready. You have the most important job for our plan to succeed."

Ilia rose as well as he began to walk away, conviction growing in her chest. "What do I have to do?"

Adam stopped walking and held up three fingers. "Mistral is controlled by three powers: the council, the academy, and the Underground. I will be the council and the academy will be destroyed, but the humans will take over the Underground. Your job is either to bring them to our side or to take the Underground over yourself."

Ilia watched him jump back down to the hangar floor, lost in her thoughts. _I can't afford to be weak anymore, not for these people, not for Adam, not even for Blake._

 _I'll become the commander. I'll save these people, no matter what._

* * *

"Are you angry?"

Blake and Yang sat side by side on the floor, leaning against the bed. After Silo had deemed Yang fit to leave the infirmary, Raven had given them a tent to stay in together right next to the head tent, complete with a table, a dresser, and a battered bed frame from the camp storage. The tent was where they had spent most of their time for the past couple of days – sometimes talking, sometimes seeing friends, but mostly just sitting in silence together.

Yang's shoulders hung limp as she slouched against the bedframe. Her hair was generally disheveled, and she still wore the pair of pajamas Tai had brought her in the middle of the afternoon. Raven and Blake had managed to force her to take one shower, but beyond that she had barely taken care of herself. Taking a long breath, she said, "Yeah, I am. I really, really am."

"Then why haven't you broken anything yet? Why haven't you activated your semblance at all?" Blake asked, voicing a fear she had been waiting to materialize but never had.

Yang shrugged, turning an empty glass over and over in her hands. "I guess… I'm angry as fucking hell, but everyone I'm angry _at_ I can't bring myself to bring it out on them. I'm furious at you for not telling me anything, for shutting me out all the time, for not telling me about Mom, but you're my girlfriend and its not your fault and you're here for me right now. I want to kill Mom for abandoning me but now that I know why and because she saved me I can't even hate her for it. I hate Violet for being more of Mom's daughter than I've ever been but Ruby's… fuck, I don't even know what they are, and she's in a fucking coma anyways. I hate that Ruby and I are so distant because of Bella and I hate that she didn't tell me anything, but she's in the _same damn coma!_ "

She chucked the glass at the dresser across the room and it shattered. Blake flinched, her ears flattening against her head.

Yang wasn't done yet. "I wish Dad had told me about Raven. I wish Qrow had told me about Violet. I wish I hadn't jumped at Adam. I hate Adam for every fucking fiber of his entire being." Clenching her fist, she snarled, "I wish anyone in my entire fucking life had trusted me enough to tell me why the fuck everything was falling to pieces around me. The only person I'm _not_ angry at right now is Weiss, because she's the only one who told me anything and she didn't even know what was going on either!"

Blake shook her head, staring at the remnants of the glass on the floor. "It's really, really shitty," she said, unable to summon any meaningful apology. "All of it."

"I expected you to shut me out again," Yang said. "After I woke up, I thought you would stop talking to me, or just leave and never come back. I'm still afraid you're going to shut me out."

"I won't." The words left her mouth more forceful than she had expected. "I don't care if Ozpin or anyone else tries to stop me. If being honest to you means that I'm kicked out of Beacon, I don't really care anymore. I've had enough of being bound by other people and their fucked up wishes, Adam and Ozpin both."

Yang looked at the floor. She looked at the glass. They both were silent.

"Blake?"

"Yeah."

Yang looked at her with a deep sadness in her eyes. "I'm a brawler. How can I ever go back to Beacon with only one arm?"

Blake tried to put the pieces of the glass back together in her mind and failed miserably. What had the object even looked like before Yang had thrown it? "I don't know," she answered honestly, "but I'll stay with you no matter what."

Every apology died on her tongue.

 _This isn't about me. It's always been about her._

Two girls sat and mourned and thought, together.

* * *

Emerald sat nervously at the obsidian table, fighting to keep herself from fidgeting. For the past few days, she had been lead through the most treacherous dance of her life. Everything, it seemed, had been a test of some sort; from the blatantly obvious where Salem has locked her into an ampitheatre and had her kill a seemingly endless stream of Grimm to dinner conversations where every sentence contained unknown peril she could barely parse. In return, she had somehow been given a seat at Salem's table, and it scared the living shit out of her. She had never been more on edge in her entire life.

Salem swept into the throne room, and she, Watts, Hazel, and Tyrian all stood up in acknowledgment. She let them at ease with a simple hand gesture then took her throne. "It is time. The humans are scared and the faunus are ready for our leadership. Watts."

"Yes, my lady?" Watts said, his mustache twitching with every word. Emerald's lip curled as he spoke; he was a lecherous man and she wanted to rip his awful facial hair right off his face.

"You will return to Atlas and continue to work your propaganda virus. The rest of you will travel to Mistral and assist the White Fang in their mission."

Emerald felt her insides go cold. "Me?" Salem quirked her lips in amusement and nodded. "But what about Cinder?"

Salem rose from her throne and walked to the window, clasping her hands behind her back. "Cinder is still recovering from her new arm. She has grown to rely on you far too much. To lose you… It is a far kinder punishment than she deserves." She turned back to the table and fixed her expression on Emerald. "Besides, you should be happy. All your life a servant, and now you finally get the chance to prove yourself on your own."

Tyrian gave an overdramatic sigh, sinking down in his chair. "Oh, would you ignore the girl already? What am _I_ to do? Who do I get to kill?"

"Patience, Tyrian. You will meet with Lionheart and follow the remaining hunters on their missions. Kill them all." Tyrian burst out cackling, and she turned her attention to Hazel. "You will keep Taurus under control and ensure everything goes as planned. Both of you will return to me when Taurus takes the Kingdom."

Emerald shrank into her chair as everyone turned their attention back to her. "And me?" she asked quietly.

Salem looked at her evenly. "You, Emerald Sustrai, are going to kill Astral Skulla and become leader of the Mistrali Underground."


	4. Omake II (C33)

Omake II (C33)

* * *

re:Bound Plus

Allison Illuminated

Chapter Publish Date: 9/30/18

Beta: Vixie

* * *

 **Where in re:Bound – Part 3/6 of the Underground AU. Ilia has agreed to become the Commander of the Mistral branch of the Fang and help the White Fang take over the kingdom. Emerald has been assigned to lead a coup d'etat of the Mistrali Underground. Weiss and Nora deepen their friendship. Blake and Yang reaffirm their relationship.**

 **Why It Was Cut – See Part One. The funeral scene is the one part of the original V4 that got mostly preserved for the current V4, so many parts will be familiar, though less edited.**

 **TW – See Part One.**

* * *

 **[Disclaimer] I made an executive decision here and borrowed the names from _Not This Time, Fate_ for Jaune's family because nine names is a lot and if I name another OC a variation of Lily my head will explode. Therefore, all credit for the names of Jaune's family belongs to Coeur Al'Aran, who is marvelous and if you haven't read him, do you even read RWBY fanfic?**

 **[Disclaimer II] On top of everything from the original disclaimer, I also wrote the funeral scene here before Saphron was revealed. Note that she's in the current C33 by name.**

* * *

They held the ceremony in the backyard, in between the blossoming white roses and the gentle emerald boughs of the forest. Tai and Qrow had done most of the work – flowers, chairs, getting all of the guests together. There hadn't been many requests or ideas. Nora had quietly asked Tai if he could bring them lillies, and he had sent Qrow to gather lilies where Ruby's aura had been awoken. They lined the aisle and rested gently on the sides of the coffin. Nora, Weiss, Yang, and Blake gently set the coffin down on the waiting table, and Pyrrha leaned Crocea Mors up against its side.

The five girls embraced for a long moment, then sat down on a row of chairs that had been set out behind. Weiss, Blake, and Yang sat as close together as possible, holding each other for comfort. They all gazed up at the open window to the room where Ruby and Neo laid unconscious, a vase of freshly-cut roses resting on the windowsill. Nora sat off to the side, looking lost. Pyrrha simply drew her knees to her chest and closed her eyes, fighting with all her strength to keep her powers locked within.

A decent audience had made it to Patch, considering the circumstances. Raven, Tai, Qrow, and Glynda sat together in the front row, with Port, Oobleck, and a few other professors in the row behind them. On the other side of the aisle were the Arcs – all nine of them. It hadn't taken Qrow long to track them down and break the news to them. They hadn't even known Jaune was at Beacon and they had demanded his body be returned to their home on a farm east of Notch. When Qrow had told them his body had been incinerated, they reluctantly had agreed to return to Patch to attend his funeral there.

Juniper and Nicholas, his parents, solemnly sat on the isle wearing black. Next to them, an older girl with a coral-tipped ponytail sat stoically as a tiny girl with a pixie cut clung to her arm. In the second row, two girls who looked to be about Jaune's age clung to each other as one cried, and three girls who looked a little younger watched the proceedings blankly.

Besides them, not many other people had turned up. Ren had no family, and after the battle people had scattered with the wind. The only other friends in attendance were Sun and Neptune, both who looked far worse for wear, sitting in the back.

There was no priest; the temple was far too busy desperately trying to identify the dead in the city to do a proper funeral. Instead, Tai rose to his feat and made his way to the podium. He pulled a scrap of paper out of his pocket and cleared his throat.

"Um, hello everyone," he began, surveying the small crowd. "I'm Taiyang Xiao-Long, father of Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao-Long." His voice had hitched on Ruby's name, and he took a second to collect himself. "We're here today to remember the lives of Lie Ren and Jaune Arc, two of the bravest young hunters I ever had the chance to meet. Up here we have some of their friends, who are going to speak about them."

Tai bowed his head and returned to his seat. Nora gave Pyrrha a long sad look, then squeezed Weiss' hand and walked up to the podium.

She took a deep breath, then smiled weakly at the crowd. "Um, hi. I'm Nora Valkyrie, and I was friends with Ren since the two of us were ten. I never really knew my parents and his died when we were young, so we were best friends and the only family either of us really had."

"Ren was one of the kindest people ever. He was always quiet and super thoughtful, even when sometimes I got a _little bit_ too excited-"

"You're always too excited, Nora!" Yang called, and laughter filled the crowd.

"Okay, fine, so _maybe_ I get excited sometimes," Nora admitted, throwing Yang a dirty look. "But Ren was always there to listen to me. He helped me unlock my aura and figure out my semblance – I was struck by lightning, didn't die, _crazy_ Tuesday." She grinned and shook her head. "He just looked at me and shook his head, you know? As if he expected me to get to get struck by lightning or something – I mean, we were standing in a cornfield in a thunderstorm and I was holding Manghild above my head, but that's probably beyond the point." There was another round of laughter, and her smile faded slightly.

"Ren helped other people a lot. He was quiet about it and he hated when other people thanked him." Her gaze grew pensive. "People thanked me on his behalf, sometimes. I remember when Ruby was having a hard time with Cardin first semester, he made it his personal mission to keep him away from her. Ruby never said anything, but Velvet told me once how Cardin and his team had cornered her in the entrance to the library and Ren stopped them before they could do anything. I don't think Ruby ever knew about it." Her gaze rose up to the flowered window. "Ruby's in a coma, but I think I'll tell her once she wakes up."

Nora leaned forwards on the podium, the smile gone from her face all together. "I love Ren. He was my brother, my best friend, the person I cared about the most in the whole wide world. I know if he were here, he would tell me to be happy and to be myself, cause that's all that matters." She stared at the coffin for a long moment, then she smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Ren was always at peace with himself, and I am too. I'm going to keep fighting and protecting Pyrrha for him, and I hope everyone else will remember him for who he was at Beacon. Thank you."

Nora nodded at the crowd, which burst out in applause. Weiss, Blake, and Yang buried her in a hug, while Pyrrha remained unmoved in her chair. "Pyrrha can't talk about Jaune right now," Nora whispered. "She won't be able to keep her powers under control."

"I can do it," Weiss said.

Blake and Yang both looked at her questioningly. "What will you say?" Blake asked.

Weiss bowed her head, pale eyes narrowed at the hem of her skirt. "I was our leader. I was his leader. All eight of us were a team, and he was my friend. If Pyrrha can't handle this, then this is my duty."

The couple looked skeptical, but Nora nodded. "You've got this."

Breaking apart, Weiss rose from her chair and walked to the podium. Holding herself up, she said, "Good morning and greetings professors, friends, family members. My name is Weiss Schnee, and I am the leader of Team WBYR."

There were a few murmurs among the Arc family when she said her name. Weiss watched them hesitantly for a moment, then continued. "Jaune Arc was more than just the leader of our partner team, Team JNPR, to me. He was also a classmate, a hard-working fighter, and an _excellent_ friend. I'll be the first to admit the first time I talked to Jaune I was a bit… skeptical."

"You ignored him to talk to Pyrrha because she's famous before initiation," Yang helpfully added. Qrow groaned and covered his eyes and the eldest Arc sighed and sunk down into her seat.

To most people's surprise, Weiss laughed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, I was kind of awful at the beginning of the school year," she said dryly, sharing a long look with Blake and Yang who both shook their heads. "But one of the things that I've learned about being a leader is that it's not about command or authority, it's all about trust. You've got to trust your team, and they've got to trust you back. A certain professor here helped me learn that."

Professor Port stuck his hand in the air. "I most certainly will accept the credit for young Miss Schnee's marvelous growth!" he exclaimed jovially, and everyone burst out laughing.

Weiss regained her composure, shooting a long look at Pyrrha. Sighing, she turned back to the audience. "See, the thing is, Jaune never needed anyone to teach him how to be a great leader. He knew it all naturally: the tactics, the teamwork, even how to make good friends with his team right out the bat. Once he got some confidence behind him in the second semester-" Everybody except the Arcs turned to look at Pyrrha, who withdrew back into her ball slightly. "-he was one of the best leaders in our year," Weiss concluded.

"Anyways, when we met Jaune, he was an uncertain kid who didn't know how to lift a sword. Just a few months later, he was a confident, powerful fighter and leader. He was friends with all of us- well, everybody but Ruby," Weiss amended, shooting another look at the open window. "We all loved Jaune, and to me he felt a bit like the brother I wish I had."

Yang and Nora exchanged a look at the brother comment, but decided not to bring it up.

Weiss sighed, looking over the crowd. "Well, um, thank you, everybody, for coming out to remember our friends and teammates with us. Thanks to the Arcs for making it up the coast from Notch. Um, Tai, did you want to say something else?"

Weiss stepped down from the podium, where her teammates waited. Instead of heading straight for Yang and Nora, she sat down next to Pyrrha and gave her a big hug. "It's going to be okay," she whispered into her ear. "We love you and we're here for you. We're going to make it through this."

"I can't grieve." Pyrrha's voice was barely a whisper. "She's in my head, Weiss. Cinder. Audrey. Salem punished her for not killing me, it was so painful, and now she won't stop whispering to to me. I can barely hear what you said because she kept describing how she- how she killed him and I don't know how to make it stop or go away."

Weiss hugged her even harder. "Oh, Pyrrha..." The Schnee Heiress didn't leave her side for the rest of the ceremony.

Other people spoke after Weiss. Glynda gave a long speech about Ren and Jaune as huntsmen, filled with glowing praise and more than a few funny stories about the duo. Professor Port's speech seemed to be more about himself than anybody else, but it was still moving. Neptune spoke briefly about Ren – the two chillest people at Beacon had clicked during the dance, and had been good friends ever since. Finally, Nicholas rose from his wife's side and made his way to the podium.

Silence fell over the crowd as they all watched Jaune's dad. "Jaune was never supposed to become a huntsman," he said, clearing his throat. "My grandfather Grayson Arc was a hero in the Great War, as I'm sure some of you know – he helped create the Vytal Treaty and was a founder of the color naming convention. My family has always been hunters and huntresses – my eldest daughter Coral graduated from Beacon some years ago, and Hazel and Jade have been training personally with me for quite some time. Ever since he was a young boy, I would tell him the stories of his grandfather and other ancestors, and I would show him this sword-" He waved his hand at Crocea Mors. "-and tell him, 'One day, this sword will be yours.' As my only son, Jaune was always supposed to be the one to carry on the Arc name."

Nicholas bowed his head. "However, when Jaune was seven, he was diagnosed with a rehabilitative genetic disease that severely limited his growth."

Eyes across the crowd widened in shock, and Nora, Blake, and Yang all stared at each other, dumbfounded. "What?" murmured Weiss. Even Pyrrha perked up slightly, staring at Jaune's dad.

"He never told me that," she whispered, and Weiss hugged her tighter.

"We are so, _so_ lucky that out of all eight of our children, only one received the illness," he continued, his voice thick with emotion, "and without modern medicine and the marvels of tech, Jaune would never have been able to leave a wheelchair. Even with all that, though, he was severely underweight and skinny and couldn't build real muscle mass. After he injured himself in training when he was ten, we-" Nicholas had to take a long moment to compose himself. "We made him stop training to become a hunter, for his own safety."

"Despite that, Jaune was still one of the happiest, funniest kids I've ever known," he continued. "We knew deep down that he would never stop wanting to be a hunter, as much as we hoped he would stay home where he would be safe. He loved his sisters and his home, never took off that awful bunny sweater of his..."

"Hey, don't be mean to the sweater!" one of the girls who looked to be Jaune's age, the one who wasn't crying, said. "He loved Pumpkin Pete! I still have all his stupid posters of her and the bunny all over the walls of our room!" She pointed accusingly at Pyrrha, who blushed and slunk closer to Weiss.

"I like the bunny too, that's why I signed up for the ad," Pyrrha whispered to the heiress, who nodded understandingly.

"I can't believe he had posters of Pyrrha in his room and he _still_ didn't know who she was," Yang muttered to Blake, who just shook her head.

Nicholas rolled his eyes. "Hazel, shush." Hazel rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, where her sister was _still_ crying. The Arc patriarch allowed himself a smile, then his tone turned somber again. "When Jaune disappeared with Crocea Mors, we were so afraid that he had gotten himself killed. I- I'm just glad that he finally got to live his dream, to be a hunter- I just, I- I wish we had never stopped him. I wish I could have trained him." A tear trickled down Nicholas' grizzled cheek, and he wiped it away with a finger. In the audience, Juniper was openly crying. "I'm just glad that my son found true friends and became the hero he longed to be. Thank you, all of you, for being here for him." Bowing his head, he swept off the stage and comforted his wife.

Everyone was silent for a long moment before the funeral began to proceed once more.

Ren was buried by the lily pond, resting next to the flowers he loved so much in life. The five girls stood together, arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, as they sang the traditional death hymns for the gods. Crocea Mors was set by the grave's side, glittering gently in the shady daylight. Nora's eyes were closed, and she smiled with her head tilted toward the sky, singing the words to the songs every person on Remnant knew loudest of all.

Finally, everyone stepped aside as the gravestone was wheeled in. Nora and Pyrrha picked it up together and set it at the head of the grave. To complete the ceremony, each of them read off one of the names on the stone.

"Lie Ren," Nora said softly, her voice cracking as she gently traced the engraved name on the marble.

Taking deep shuddering breaths, Pyrrha knelt by her side. Pressing her gauntlet to the stone, she closed her eyes to fight the tears leaking out. "Jaune. Jaune Arc."

The mourners trickled away from the pond, returning to the house where food and light remained. Hazel Arc stooped down and brought Crocea Mors with her.

By the lily pond, Jaune Arc and Lie Ren rested peacefully in the dappled sunlight, together.

* * *

As people mingled outside, Weiss led her teammates to the back door. Yang and Blake slipped inside and she closed the door behind them. Before either of them got a chance to look around the house, Weiss had flung herself onto Yang. "I missed you so much," she mumbled into her best friend's shoulder.

Yang gave her a strong one-armed hug back. "We missed you too."

Weiss held on for another long moment, trying to stop herself from tearing up, then let of Yang and hugged Blake as well, albeit with a little less vigor. Neither one of them said anything, but Blake's ears curled slightly and Weiss relaxed into the crook of her neck.

Stepping back, Weiss gave her two teammates a warm smile that spoke more that her words ever could. _They're here, they're both still alive and okay…_ "What took you guys so long to get here?" she asked them quietly, leading them to the living room where they all plopped down onto the same couch. Yang sat into the middle, and Weiss and Blake curled up on either side of her. "We were starting to worry something bad had happened."

Blake rolled her eyes. "No, not much has happened since we got to the tribe. Mostly they just leave us alone – Raven and Greaser come by to check on us, but other than that, their Core is all busy running around Anima dealing with… everything. Raven said she was dealing with something in Mistral right before."

Weiss sighed. "I _still_ can't believe Raven refuses to let me into her camp," she pouted, and Yang laughed.

"I mean, you are kinda Weiss Schnee, heiress to the world's most powerful and most evil-"

"Hey!"

"-corporation," Yang finished smugly. She smirked at Weiss, who sighed and leaned her head on Yang's shoulder.

"I suppose you have a point. Even being your leader, she would still try to ransom me back to my father, wouldn't she?" Weiss muttered.

Yang laughed again, slinging her sole arm over Weiss' shoulder. "That _absolutely_ sounds like something Raven would do," Blake said. Eying Yang's arm, she gave her a pointed look and batted it with her free hand. Yang shook her head and rested her stump on her girlfriend's shoulder. Blake gave her a smug look. "Much better."

Weiss got a good look at her stump for the first time. Yang's jacket hung loose over it, and it was gut-wrenching to see the absence. "How's your arm?" she asked quietly.

Yang's face fell, and she shrugged. "Gone. I- It's weird. Like, it was my whole life, y'know? My career and education..." She gave a twisted smile. "Raven and Silo did a good job healing it, though. It feels like it's natural, even though I know it isn't."

"Yang… I wish I could be there with you," she said. "I don't care if I get sold back to my father, I want to be with you two no matter what."

Yang instantly shook her head. "You can't."

Weiss felt as if she had been struck in the gut. "What do you mean, I can't? You two are my team, my family, my closest friends. Blake is staying with you, why can't I?"

"Believe me, Weiss, I wish you could be with us but it's complicated," Yang said in an agitated tone.

Weiss felt her anger growing. _She's pushing me away, and I won't let her!_ She opened her mouth to protest, but Blake cut her off. "Weiss, listen to me."

"What?!"

Blake sighed, pulling away from Yang so she could properly look at her leader. "I had to join the Branwen Tribe in order to stay with Yang."

Weiss froze. "You did?"

They both nodded. "If I hadn't, they would have made me leave her alone as soon as I was healed enough to leave," Blake whispered. "I didn't care, Weiss. There was _nothing_ more important to me than staying with her. You can't, you have too much to lose."

"If I joined a bandit tribe, my father would disown me," Weiss whispered back, the full implications hitting her. "But- Yang-"

"Weiss, I'm okay." Yang's hand slipped from her shoulder and took hers. "I mean, I'm _not_ okay, obviously. I have to deal with my arm and Mom and Ruby and Bella and everything- I mean, _fuck,_ I have two sisters!" She shook her head in angered amazement. "But I have Blake with me, and we- we're figuring things out. We'll be okay."

"Yang," Weiss mumbled.

Yang smiled at her, Blake looking on supportively behind her. "Weiss, you know I love you, more than anyone but Blake, but… I need to learn about my family. I need to be with the tribe right now, and you have to be here, to be with Nora and Pyrrha and to watch over Ruby and Bella. We'll visit more, I promise, even if I have to fight Raven to get her to take us here."

Weiss sniffled as she nodded, cursing herself from nodding as her tears started to fall. Yang wrapped her in another one-armed hug, and Blake came around to hug her from her other side as well. "I just…" Too choked up to keep speaking, she fell against Yang's shoulder. "I wish we could go back. I wish I could just be normal, for once in my life. Just be Weiss, a girl who won't become a part of an international scandal if I'm with you when I need you."

Yang shook her head, sighing. "We know, snowflake," she whispered, both other girls holding their leader tighter. "Trust me, we know."

"I'm going to visit him. Next week." Weiss pulled away from Yang and fiercely wiped her tears away. "Atlas is in turmoil. It's going to be a disaster," she said with a shaky laugh.

"Oh god, are you going to have to deal with your bratty brother?" Blake asked, and she nodded with a teary grimace. "Punch him for me, will you?"

Weiss snorted in spite of herself. "Blake Belladonna, telling me to punch somebody?"

The faunus just shrugged. " _Somebody_ has to."

Yang nodded in agreement. "I would, but… well..." She help her stump up and gave a pained smile. "It's a little _hands-on_ , wouldn't you say?"

Weiss blinked as Blake snickered, then a sly smirk crossed her face. "Y'know, I thought you'd be Yangrier about your arm."

Yang laughed. "There we go, stump bump!" Weiss hesitantly bumped her fist against her stump, and the other girl made an exploding noise and fell back against the cushions.

"How long did it take you to come up with 'stump bump'?" she asked skeptically, unable to keep a hint of a smile of her face.

"Oh, about a week," Yang deadpanned.

Blake sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "I still can't believe you corrupted her into telling puns," she grumbled, and Weiss lost the last of her sad composure and burst out laughing.

Yang joined her, golden hair spilling down the back of the couch as she threw her head back and stared at the ceiling with her partner. It was white and entirely uninteresting, Weiss decided as she followed suit. The trio sat there for a long time, staring at the ceiling in reflective silence.

"I am angry about my arm, by the way," Yang said, and Weiss tilted her head slightly to look at her. "Not at you at all, or anyone else really. Mostly at myself. I know I can get a prosthetic or something, but it won't be the same."

Weiss sighed. "Wait till Ruby wakes up, she'll build you something crazy that's better than your arm ever was."

"Yeah, probably," Yang said, her expression falling. "Can we go see her and… Bella?"

Weiss nodded and they rose from the couch. Something about what Yang had said caught her interest, though. "Why are you calling her Bella?" Weiss asked quietly. "Raven told that's her real name, but she introduced herself to us as Neo..."

Yang shrugged as she followed Weiss towards the stairs. "Everyone at the tribe called her Bella. Besides, it's… After hearing about her past…" She stopped short on a step, deep in thought. "It's like… Neo is the persona, I guess. The one who made Ruby snap, the one who killed all those people in the Tribe War. And Bella… Bella is my sister, the one who was at my baby shower, the one who Raven adopted. I don't… I can't think of them as the same person, yet."

Weiss nodded uncertainly. "I'm just surprised you're calling her your sister at all," she admitted, and Yang shrugged.

"Yeah. I mean, to everyone in the tribe, I'm Raven's youngest daughter. It's _weird_. When I was searching for my Mom, I never imagined I would find more family to come with her." Yang shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know how I feel, but Raven… She still loves me, Weiss." The look she shot Weiss was filled with confusion and feeling she couldn't understand. "And she loves her too. Maybe… I guess I've always kind of wished I had an older sister. I guess that's true now, in an awful twisted way." Yang motioned for them to start walking, and they ascended the rest of the stairs. "It's not like she's just going to go away if say she isn't my sister, is it?"

Weiss frowned. "I guess not..."

"I've been telling her about Neo- er, Bella," Blake said as Weiss stopped outside of the closed door to the guest room. "What we did this spring, me and her and Ruby and Raven. It should have been Yang the whole time, not me."

"Hey." Yang pulled Blake closer to her and kissed her firmly. "I told you I don't blame you for any of this, did I? It's all Ozpin, my stupid grandfather, and Roman Torchwick's fault, and you just got unlucky."

"I know, I just-"

Yang glared at her. "Blake Belladonna, shut up and kiss me back."

Weiss sighed. "And here I was afraid that you two would break up because of this whole mess." Blake made a noise somewhere in between a hum of acknowledgment and a moan, and she tactfully decided to drop the subject. Pushing the door open, she stepped inside and called back over her shoulder, "Whenever you two are done out there, Yang's got two comatose sisters in here waiting for you guys!"

She raised an eyebrow as they followed her in, Yang's cheeks flushed and Blake looking a bit frazzled. "'They just leave you alone,' huh?" she quipped, and Yang rolled her eyes.

"Not like that," she said innocently, then hesitated. "Well, mostly not like that. Not for the first couple of days, at least."

Weiss blushed. "Gross."

Blake sighed and pushed past Weiss to Ruby's side. "Both of you, honestly." She took Ruby's hand in her, staring down at the comatose girls. "Has there been any change?" she murmured.

Weiss and Yang walked to her side. "Not much," Weiss said in a hushed tone. "Raven says their auras have been stabilizing, but that's about it."

"She looks just like she did over winter break," Yang whispered. She knelt and swept Ruby's crimson-tinged hair away from her face to reveal her glassy unseeing eyes. They stared for a long moment, and then she laughed harshly. "At least we're in the same boat, huh? I lost an arm, she lost an eye..."

"Yang..." Blake put a hand on her shoulder, but she rose and pushed it over.

Walking around the bed, Yang stood at Neo's side. Reaching down, she gently touched her pale cheek, brushing a pink lock of hair away with her finger. "Bella. Bella Branwen. My adopted sister," she said, eyes resting on her face. She held the glance for a long moment, then buried her face in her hands. Her body began to shake, but something held Blake and Weiss back from going to comfort her. "My adopted older sister," she repeated dumbly. "Gods, I- I wasn't even a good enough sister to take care of _Ruby_! How am I- How- I- What am I supposed to do now that I have two?"

Untethered, Yang sank down to the side of the bed and wept. The wind blew the sunlight through the window, dusting rose petals on her golden hair. Silently, Weiss and Blake took each other's hands. There was nothing else they knew to do.

Five girls, one team, mourning in the morning sun.

* * *

The Arc family clustered on the other side of the garden from the hunters, quietly talking amongst themselves. Pyrrha watched them from under a tree, forcibly extinguishing the fire that was threatening to escape from her palm to the rest of her body against her thigh. It didn't burn her, only tickled enough to be noticeable.

 _They're going to hate you, you know. You're the one that killed their precious son Jaune._ Audrey's voice reverberated in her mind, hollow. _Why does it even matter, Pyrrha Nikos? If you try to talk to them, you'll just snap and even more death will be on your hands._

Pyrrha shut her eyes and pressed her head into the bark. The discomfort helped her form her own thoughts. _Shut up, Audrey._

 _My name is Cinder Fall!_

Allowing herself a tired smirk, she shot back, _Maybe I'd believe it if you didn't react like that every time._

 _So why don't you talk to them, then? What are you afraid of?_

Vale was burning. She was burning. Jaune was nothing but ash.

The tree shook as she slammed her polarity-powered fist against it, a small shockwave rocking everything metal within her sight. She summoned every ounce of her loathing for Audrey and shoved it down the bond. Her smirk turned cruel as she felt Cinder stagger in her dark corner of Salem's mansion. _At least I'm not locked up like a caged dog,_ she snarled, then slammed her aura down over the bond before Cinder could respond. Careful coaching from Qrow and Raven had helped her start to figure out mental aura manipulation, but she could still hold it just long enough for a momentary reprive from the other maiden.

"Pyrrha?" Nora had run over from Sun and Neptune to her side in concern. "What's happening? Is it _her_?"

Pyrrha pushed off of the tree and walked away from her teammate. _I have to talk to them before Audrey comes back._ "I'm fine," she said curtly, throwing Nora a thin smile that never reached her eyes. "I have to talk to the Arcs."

Nora narrowed her eyes and ran after her. Pyrrha tried to speed up, but she caught her wrist. "Then I'm coming with you."

Wrenching her wrist free, Pyrrha mumbled, "I have to do this alone."

Before she could keep moving, Nora had moved in front of her. "Bullshit," she said, putting her hands on her hips.

"But he was my-"

"He was my teammate too," Nora snapped. For the first time, Pyrrha saw the agitation in her eyes. "I promised I would protect you-"

"That was in the vault," she protested.

"Then I'll do it now." Nora drew herself up to her full height, her blue eyes more fiery than the Fall Maidens. "Pyrrha Nikos, I swear that I'll protect you at all costs, no matter what happens. I won't let you do this alone, I won't let you face _her_ alone, and I won't let you push me away when you need me the most!"

The finality of her declaration resonated, lingering in the air as her teammate defiantly held her stare. Pyrrha took a step backward and looked down, gaping as she searched for words. _At all costs…_ "Nora-"

Nora stepped forward and took her hands, forcing them to lock eyes again. "No." Pyrrha stiffened in surprise – Nora's hands were trembling, and her face sung fear and grief, but she refused to drop her gaze. "They're gone, Pyr," she whispered fiercely. "But I'm not. We're a _team_ , no matter what happens. It was your choice to take these powers, and it was _our_ choice to protect you and them. This is our mission, now and for as long as you're the maiden. I won't give it up now. _We_ won't give it up now."

"Nora," Pyrrha whispered. She took a deep breath, fighting to keep her emotions in and failing. The hint of red haze began to rise, her mind spinning from thought to fear as her eyes started to burn.  
"I can't… I can't… I-"

Nora hugged her as tightly as possible. "He's gone, Pyrrha," she whispered, desolate. "He's gone. You and Weiss are all I have left." Her voice shook, and she dug her fingers under her armor. "You're all that I have left. Please… I can't lose you now."

"All that I have left," Pyrrha repeated numbly, and the tension flooded out of her body. The maiden's aura vanished, and she sagged in Nora's embrace. "Nora…" She trembled, hanging her head, the world watering in her eyes. "Nora, he's gone. I read his name, we did the rites, he's… he's really gone."

"I know," Nora whispered desolately as Pyrrha started to cry for the first time since the battle. "I… I'm so sorry."

 _He promised me._

It took a long time for Pyrrha to calm down. Her maiden powers almost flared twice, but she and Nora managed to force it back down both times. Finally, she was calm enough to shakily let go of Nora. Unable to conjure a smile, she said, "Thank you."

Nora nodded, offering her the smile she couldn't give, and grabbed her hand. "C'mon, let's go find Jaune's family," she said, then pulled her towards the house.

Everyone had left the backyard and moved into the house while Pyrrha was having her meltdown. As they stepped into the kitchen, all of the adults save for Jaune's parents had gathered around the table and were having an intense conversation. Tai immediately broke off and wrapped Pyrrha up into a tight hug, which she returned after a moment. When he let her go, he caught her eyes for a moment, then turned back to the conversation.

"The rebuilding effort is a joke," Qrow was saying as Pyrrha and Nora joined the conversation for a moment.

Raven scowled at her brother. "Of course it's a joke, it's been less than a week since Salem dropped an entire fleet on Vale! They haven't even finished finding the dead, forget resurrecting an entire city."

Professor Port looked to Glynda with a questioning expression. "What news is there of Beacon?" he asked. "I must admit, this is the first moment of rest Bartholomew and I have taken all week, so we are uninformed with all power down of everything but what's happening in the city."

Glynda nodded heavily. "The council has named me Headmistress with Ozpin gone. The damage isn't that bad in the school – only Ozpin's tower and the main entrance sustained any real damage. We _will_ hold classes in September, the only question will be how many people we get."

"You don't have to worry about that," Qrow growled. "The council's already started planning a draft. There's going to be an army before this year is over, the kingdom's lost too much not to be prepared. There'll be more first-year hunters this year than since the Great War began. Are you ready for that, Glynda?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Am I ready to lead a kingdom to war? Of fucking course I'm not, are you insane?"

"Are you sure it's going to be a war?" The speaker was the eldest Arc sister, the one with a pink streak in her hair.

"We can never be certain, Coral," Professor Oobleck responded to her, "but knowing the history of our world… The Great War was only eighty years ago, and this was a direct attack on Vale's sovereignty by Atlas. We are doing everything we can to prevent it, but it may be inevitable."

Coral closed her eyes and tilted her head towards her former professor. "If we are truly headed towards a second Great War, the hunters will become generals again. I-" She turned to Glynda. "May I inform my team and other yearmates? It's been four years since we graduated, but we're still in touch. They deserve to know if we're going to have to fight."

Glynda sighed. "Of course, Ms. Arc. With the CCT down, we can use as much communication as we can get."

"I don't like this," Tai said, crossing his arms. "I don't like this at all."

Qrow gave him a sad look. "None of us do, Tai."

Glynda, Coral, and the professors nodded in agreement.

Pyrrha had heard enough. Pulling away from the conversation, she started to walk away, Nora quickly falling in next to her. Her suffering was pushed aside for a moment as her mind spun with everything she had just learned. "War?" she whispered to Nora.

"Professor Oobleck said there might not be one?" she whispered back uncertainly.

The two girls unconsciously drew closer together as they stepped into the living room. The Arcs had taken over the room. Nicholas and Juniper sat together on the armchair, their youngest daughter cuddled between them. Hazel and the sister that had been cry sat together silently in the armchair, and the three younger sisters had gone outside to play. Nora nudged Pyrrha as they walked up to the two parents. Pyrrha took a deep breath and said, "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Arc."

Juniper gave them a wan smile. "You two were the readers, weren't you?" she asked. "You were friends of my son, call us Juniper and Nicholas."

"We were Jaune's teammates," Nora interjected. "And Pyrrha was his, um, partner."

Pyrrha looked down as Nicholas scrutinized her. "I'm sorry for your loss," she mumbled, fighting to keep her composure. Breaking down would be bad, but showing her powers in front of them would be even worse.

"Our loss. You're Pyrrha Nikos," Nicholas said kindly. "We would never have imagined Jaune could have ended up partnering with such a famous huntress. He really did get to live his dream..."

She could see the good intentions and grief behind what he was saying, but she still cringed deeply, resentment and self-loathing creeping up. "He didn't know who I was when we met," she mumbled, "and we were dating when he..."

Nicholas and Juniper exchanged a look, then Juniper rose to her feet and hugged her. "I'm sorry," the Arc matriarch whispered. "We had no idea. We had no idea he was so close to home. I mean, Coral went to Beacon. Hazel's going in the fall, I-"

"You were dating Jaune?" a voice exclaimed from behind them. Hazel frowned as her older sister leaned forward intently. "How long?"

Pyrrha turned as Juniper let go of her. "Five months."

The girl laughed harshly, her words twisting with resentment. "How the hell did _Jaune_ pick up _  
Pyrrha fucking Nikos?_ "

Nicholas shot to his feet. "Sapphire, that's enough!" he commanded. "If you can't handle yourself, you can leave and spend the rest of the day in Patch!"

Sapphire sneered at her father. "Is she why Jaune never tried getting back in touch with us? Maybe I will leave, it's not like this stupid ceremony's going to bring him back anyways." Pulling away from Hazel, she stormed out of the house.

Juniper glared at her daughter until she was out of sight, then turned back to Pyrrha apologetically. "Forgive her, please. She and Jaune were always the closest in age and the closest to home. They were inseparable until right before Jaune left, when he started getting more distant. When he didn't leave anything but a note, she… she took it the hardest."

"It was my fault." Nicholas, Juniper, and Hazel all looked at her as tears started trickling down her face again. "I was… given something that made me a target for… for certain powerful people. I was supposed to protect it alone if there was ever an emergency but my team… they followed me, and now half of our team is dead."

Before the Arcs could react, Nora angrily burst in. "That's not true, Pyrrha!" she exclaimed. "We _chose_ to follow you, not the other way around. Jaune was a _hero_." She turned to his parents. "Cinder Fall had her sword to Pyrrha's throat and Jaune sacrificed himself to give her time to save the world. He was a hero, and none of it was Pyrrha's fault. Jaune, Ren, and I chose this, nobody else."

"Pyrrha." She looked up at Jaune's dad, wiping tears from her face. "We don't blame you."

Juniper nodded. "We meant what Nicholas said in his speech. We- Jaune leaving and dying is one of the worst things that's ever happened to us, but he got to live his dream that we always told him was impossible. We- we though he had just been killed by Grimm, which was why he hadn't written. To know he was a hero… It means the world, to us."

"But-"

Nicholas shook his head. "Please don't apologize to us, Pyrrha. All we ask is that maybe you two could come have dinner with us sometime." A glimmer of amusement shone in his eye. "We have all kind of embarrassing stories about Coral from Beacon. Now that we know Jaune attended Beacon too..."

Nora snickered. "Oh, have I got some stories for you..."

Nodding, Pyrrha said, "I guess, if you really mean it, I wouldn't mind that."

"Wonderful." Juniper sat back down next to her youngest child, who had watched the whole conversation in quiet confusion. Smiling down at her child, she said to her, "Don't worry, Amber, Mommy didn't forget that you're here."

Her baby cooed at her, and Pyrrha went cold.

 _Amber._

She hadn't talked to Glynda yet. She hadn't even given herself time to think over the former maiden's memories.

Noting her teammate's distraction, Nora squeezed her hand. "We're both sorry for your loss," she said quietly, earning nods from the parents. "C'mon, Pyrrha, I think I heard WBYR upstairs."

Pyrrha let Nora lead her away. A stab of intense guilt rocked her as she caught a glimpse of Glynda's golden hair through the walkway to the kitchen. Before they could ascend the stairs, a voice behind them commanded, "Stop."

Amber Arc stood at the bottom of the stairs, casually holding Crocea Mors at an angle. Before Pyrrha could speak, she cut her off. "What were you to Jaune?"

Pyrrha lowered her gaze. "I… He was my first friend, my partner, and my boyfriend. He was the most important person in my life."

"He died for you." She flinched, and Amber climbed two steps towards her. "I don't care if you're Pyrrha Nikos. My older brother is dead because of you." She pointed Crocea at her, cold and calculated anger filling her eyes. "The Arc family sword was never Jaune's. Coral didn't want it, so it passed down to _me_."

Before Pyrrha could react, Nora stood between the two and drew Stormflower from her side. Ren's weapon clicked as she cocked the chamber. "What do you want?" she hissed back.

Hazel took another step up, seizing up the duo. "Clearly your _boyfriend_ never told you anything about his family. Coral is eight years older than me and does her own thing. Lavender and the twins are younger and do their own thing. Hell, Amber never even met Jaune. Me, Jaune, and Sapphire were all two years apart from each other." She smirked bitterly. "Sapphire and Jaune were inseparable. He was always sick and had to stay inside, and she was always more interested in her science and video games than anything else. Jaune leaving destroyed Sapphire, and now that he's dead she'll probably never be functional again."

Nora frowned, Stormflower dropping slightly in her grasp. Pyrrha stared at the two glassily behind them. "I'm… sorry."

"I was their protector." Hazel lifted Crocea slightly, admiring the blade. "I am the inheritor of the Arc line. Coral wanted to protect people, never to lead. I was the one who trained every day. I was the one who studied my great-grandfather's journals, who got coaching from my dad, who kept my older siblings alive at school. Jaune took that from me. He didn't understand why he couldn't be the hero, and our family fell apart. Now he's dead, and I have Crocea back again."

"You didn't answer my question," Nora snapped, and she shook her hair out and casually gestured her to the side with her sword.

"I don't care about you," Hazel snarled, shouldering past Nora so she could look at Pyrrha. "Pyrrha Nikos, you said Jaune was the most important person in your life. Prove it."

"I don't understand," Pyrrha said, staring at the girl before her. The similarities to Jaune were overwhelming, but there was an underlying fire and purpose she knew her partner had never carried.

"I challenge you to a fight." Hazel eyed her up and down. "My brother sacrificed his life for _you_. I need to know why."

"I can't fight now," Pyrrha whispered, feeling Cinder's presence slowly trickle back in through her mental barriers.

"Well, I'm going to be a first year at Beacon in the fall," Hazel said. "You can stall until then, but I _will_ avenge my brother's death. I just need to know if you're the one I have to kill or the 'Cinder' person who turned him into dust."

Before Pyrrha could respond, she had whipped around, cream-colored ponytail swaying behind her as she swept back into the living room. The front door slammed shut behind her.

Pyrrha and Nora stared at each other in shock. "What just happened?" Nora asked.

"I think I just got a formal challenge from Jaune's sister," Pyrrha replied. "And I think she just declared it to be full stakes."

Nora's eyes went even wider. "But that means the winner has the rights to do anything to the loser legally!"

They stared at each other for another long moment. Finally, Pyrrha quietly asked, "If Jaune meant this much to his sisters, why did he never talk about them?"

"I don't know, Pyrrha. I really don't know.

* * *

"Sun!"

Sun turned around just in time to be tackled by Blake. Laughing and catching them both before they fell, he said, "Woah there, never though you'd be so happy to see me. You sure you're Blake?"

She laughed and punched his chest. "Asshole, I was so worried about you! I thought you were dead when I didn't hear anything about you."

"Nah, I can take on an army of robots out for faunus blood any day," he replied casually. "And I knew you'd be fine. Need a hand over there, Yang?" he called as Yang walked up to them.

She just rolled her eyes and pulled Blake away from him. "Nah, one's enough to do this," Blake squeaked as Yang leaned her back over her arm and gave her a long kiss. Eventually, they broke apart and she smirked at Sun. "Still trying to steal my girlfriend, monkey boy?"

"Oh, I'm sure he's moved on to other things," Neptune said casually behind them.

Blake and Yang leaned against each other as the blue-haired boy casually leaned against Sun's shoulder. "Oh really," said Yang, raising an eyebrow at them. "Like what?"

Sun winked at them. "We-ell, we may have saved a shipload of civilians after our aircraft fleeing the tournament got knocked out of the sky by the crazy blue thing, then fought off a giant ocean-water-serpent Grimm thingy, then Neptune _finally_ realized he isn't the only sexy dude on our team and we had a hot victory makeout."

Neptune blushed. "Yeah, it was pretty cool."

"Damn it!" Yang dug into the pocket of her bomber jacket and pulled out a lien card. Blake smugly accepted it and slipped it into her old pocket.

Neptune raised an eyebrow. "You… bet on us getting together? Actually, I'd expect that from Yang, but _Blake_?"

Blake shrugged. "Yang said that you were as straight as Pyrrha. I, on the other hand, distinctly remember somebody telling me they only go for 'smoldering cat ladies and guys with blue hair and hot abs.' I was taken, so it was just a matter of time before you came around."

"But he told me he had a crush on Weiss!" Yang protested, and Sun burst out into uproarious laughter.

"Who had a crush on Weiss?" Weiss asked, walking up next to Yang.

Neptune sheepishly raised his hand. "I wanted to ask you to the dance but, well..."

"He can't dance," Sun helpfully supplied, and Neptune punched his arm.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "I'll admit, I _briefly_ had a crush on you as well. Unfortunately, more important things got in the way of romance."

"Well, too late now!" Sun exclaimed, slinging an arm around Neptune's shoulders. "I spent _way_ too much time trying to convince him to date me for you to have him now."

"Oh, you two are together? Congrats," she said, smiling warmly at the couple.

"Oh, also, did you know we're transferring to Beacon?" Neptune asked.

Sun winked at them. "Yup, you ladies won't be getting rid of us anytime soon."

"Sun, don't you have a boyfriend now?" Weiss asked dryly. "And as much as I'd believe it that that's your only reason, why?"

"Travel. We were talking to Glynda and she couldn't figure out how to send our team back to Mistral, so we're just going to stay in Vale," Neptune said, then his face darkened. "Also, Sage's family is from Vale and his father was killed in the attack. That's why they aren't here, they had to attend the funeral."

A silence fell over the group as the reminder of the somber occasion crept back in.

"Blake, Yang." Everybody turned to look at Raven, who stood off to the side. "We have to return to the tribe."

They were silent for a moment, then nodded. "Well, it was good seeing you guys," Yang said. Quick hugs were exchanged with Sun and Neptune, then they had a long group hug with Weiss.

"I'm going to miss you guys," she whispered.

"Us too," Blake whispered back.

Yang pressed her forehead against Weiss'. "Go give your dad some hell for us, okay?  
You'll be fine in Atlas – and if you aren't, Raven tagged you so we can go rescue you."

Weiss laughed. "Love you guys."

"Us too, Ice Queen," Blake said, and they broke apart.

Moments later, they stepped into the swirling red portal and disappeared.

* * *

The doors to the Underground swung open and a new figure strode in.

For a long moment, everybody seemed to turn and stare. She was armed and clearly dangerous, with burning red eyes that surveyed the hazy room from beneath her green hair. Stalking past gamblers and rich men, she sat down at the table and tossed five hundred lien onto the counter. "I'll take a glass of wine," she said curtly as the barman walked over.

The silence broken, everybody in the room began to whisper.

Astral Skulla violently gestured for her guards to come over. "Who the hell is she?"

"Bad news." A rough-and-tumble man elbowed his way through her guards with narrowed eyes. "She's a Valean. World class thief and assassin, confirmed accomplice of Cinder Fall and Roman Torchwick, possibly involved with the recent attacks and the White Fang."

"Fuck." Astral leaned forwards on her throne, staring directly at the green-haired woman. "Notify the tribe immediately. Raven needs to know this now."

Emerald Sustrai smiled cunningly as she caught Astral's glance. The room was already molding itself around her – she could see some gravitating towards her, some she knew to be Branwen's men moving away, and many of the corrupt and rich simply leaving. She had money and power on her side, and every criminal worth their profession in the room knew it.

 _That's the first move. Now, all that's left is to take the throne out from under Skulla's feet._

After all, if there was one thing Emerald was good at, it was imitating Cinder.

* * *

"Ah, now this is _nice_."

Roman grinned and spread his arms wide as he, Scarlett, and Neo walked into a sparkling Valean penthouse. Modern black and white furniture covered the richly furnished room, and wide glass windows looked out over the center of the industrial district and the ocean. Scarlett was more skeptical. "Roman, if some businessman walks in on us and gets us thrown in jail for the rest of our lives, I'm going to kill you," she said.

"Relax, don't you think I thought this through?" Roman asked. "This is one of Augustine's properties. He and everyone related to him is dead, so nobody's going to notice if this becomes our apartment."

She quirked her lips. "And here I was thinking that without that reward we were as good as homeless."

"Oh, please. We're the best thieves from Anima, the day I'm homeless will be the day I'm dead," Roman scoffed, flopping into an angular armchair.

Scarlett eyed Neo warily. "What's wrong with her?"

Neo was gawking at the apartment around her, stunned beyond words. _What… is this?_

"The hell do you mean, what is this? _This_ is what living large looks like, Miss Branwen." Roman spread his arms wide at the scene around them.

 _If you call me that again, I will rip your throat out and feed it to Scarlett for dinner._ Neo brushed past him to press her nose against the window. _How are there so many people? What are these buildings? I thought Vale looked like Mistral!_

"This is what a real big city looks like, _Neo_ ," Roman tacked on sarcastically. "Only two in the world, Vale and Atlas. I would've thought you'd have visited before to kill somebody."

 _I've been to Patch but never to any of the kingdom's capitals,_ she admitted. _It's not exactly like the tribes have a travel budget._

"Whatever."

"Roman, care to explain why you're having a conversation with yourself?" Scarlett asked in a dangerous tone.

"Oh, that's the mental link I have to her," he said cheerfully, jabbing his thumb at the fourteen-year-old entranced by the city below her.

"THE WHAT?!"

Twenty minutes of explaining, two pans, and one destroyed houseplant later, the trio were seated back around the couches. "So, now that we've gotten _that_ out of the way," Roman said cheerfully.

"Roman Torchwick, I am going to fucking kill you one of these days," Scarlett muttered.

He waved a hand at her dismissively. "Hey, you can kill me some other time. Right now, though, we have _got_ to figure out how we're going to take over this city."

"Shoot high much?"

Roman smirked. "We were the best in Anima. I think it's high time that Vale finds out why."


	5. Omake II (C34)

Omake II (C34)

* * *

re:Bound Plus

Allison Illuminated

Chapter Publish Date: 10/14/18

Beta: Vixie

* * *

 **Where in re:Bound – Part 4/6 of the Underground AU. Jaune and Ren have been buried. Yang, Blake, and Weiss have reconnected. Hazel has challenged Pyrrha to a formal challenge. Emerald has entered the underground.**

 **Why It Was Cut – See Part One.**

 **TW – See Part One.**

* * *

For centuries, Wisteria Kell had been famous for the trees of its namesake. One of Mistral's tallest mountains, it was a shining gem in a city of beauty. The purple flowers draped over the cobblestone roads that wound their way up the steep sides, petals blowing out over the depths in the mid-summer breeze. A waterfall tumbled down the west face into the Alitan River far below and the roads were dotted with statues and monuments to the thousands of years of Mistrali history. The Kell was topped by the Artist's Guild and some of the richest ancestral homes in the city – gorgeous mansions mixing traditional Mistrali and classical Sanian to luxurious effect.

Emerald sat atop Mistral Kell watching the other mountain below with a slight frown. Haven Academy rose behind her; she had just met with Leo Lionheart for the first time and her disgust with the coward was only now wearing off. _Of course anyone weak enough to let Salem control them like that would be a pathetic excuse for a faunus._ He had given her his loyalty though, so she couldn't be rid of the man yet.

No, her thoughts were lost on the city around her. She had worked with Trenchers and the elite alike, but nothing they had told her had prepared her for just how _beautiful_ Mistral was. The Kells were magnificent in a way Vale had never been. Given, she hadn't been to the depths yet, but still…

 _This is a peaceful city, and you're about to send that crashing to the ground._

Emerald wanted Cinder. Cinder would stand here on Mistral's highest mountain with her and tell her exactly what she needed to hear to face Skulla. Instead, Emerald was lost in her uncertainty. What would she do once she killed Skulla? How was she supposed to take control of an entire city? How was she supposed to deal with the White Fang when-

"Sustrai."

Without turning around, Emerald fought her thoughts down and smoothed her face into a practiced facade. _You've been doing this your whole life. Don't slip up now,_ she told herself, then turned around.

The girl behind her was a dark-skinned faunus, watching her evenly with piercing gray eyes. She was obviously reptilian, patchy spots colored a neutral gray. _Chameleon_ , Emerald immediately guessed, noting her dark jumpsuit clearly designed for stealth. _And if she's good enough that Taurus sent her to meet me, she must have a powerful semblance too._ Warily, she asked, "Are you Taurus' representative?"

The girl inclined her head, casually slipping onto the bench next to her, yet out of arm's reach. "Ilia Amitola. Commander of the Mistrali Branch of the White Fang."

Emerald looked the girl up and down. _Younger than me for sure._ "What happened to Calem Strong?" she asked, studying Ilia's face intently for any hint of emotion.

"Dead. He was on the stage," the faunus said with a shrug. "I was Vice Commander in Menagerie, they promoted me. What happened to Cinder Fall? High Leader Taurus was… not under the impression she would send one of her other humans alone." A sharp edge crept into her tone at the word 'human,' and Emerald bristled at the hostile challenge in her eyes.

 _Who does she think she is?_ Emerald strangled her temper and returned Ilia's look evenly, pulling one of her jade locks back over her shoulder. _She_ held the power in this conversation, she forced herself to remember. Salem's vast network stood at her back, she could kill this insolent salamander in seconds, and-

 _Cinder wasn't there._

"She is… otherwise occupied," Emerald said smoothly, practiced words flowing like toxic sap to her lips. "I represent our _mutual interests_ until we both get what we want." _And what I want is to kill the Nikos bastard for taking Cinder away from me._

Ilia's spots turned a sickly green, which told Emerald exactly what she needed to know about how the White Fang felt about _that_ proposition. She allowed herself a smug smile as Ilia fought her skin back to gray and glowered at Emerald. "You asked for this meeting, Sustrai, not the White Fang," Ilia said in a clipped tone. "Our operations are running according to schedule. Speak your piece and leave."

Emerald inclined her head. "Our network in the Underground runs deeper than Skulla knows. Branwen has been losing ground in Mistral for the past three years. We'll be ready to take the throne before the end of the week. Prepare your camp for the fallout."

Ilia nodded. "Is that all?"

Shaking her head, Emerald reached into her pocket and tossed a Scroll at Ilia, who caught it. "There. Profiles and info on every hunter on Anima. Half of the ones stationed in Mistral are dead thanks to our assassin. The database updates itself as it goes. There's also data on Haven and the council building for next week."

Pulling the scroll open, Ilia flinched at the sight of the black queen and slammed it shut again. Her spots tinged red, she abruptly stood and said, "I'll deliver this to Adam."

Emerald nodded, holding back an internal sigh of relief. _That was easier than I expected, given that Adam sent someone who_ literally _wears her emotions on her sleeve._

A crack came from a tree behind the duo and a dark form shot towards them. A Vacuan human barreled into Ilia, barreling her to the ground and knocking the scroll from her hands. Ilia screamed in alarm as the man's dagger collided with the aura at her throat. A phantom arm shot from the man's back to hold one of her arms down – _What a semblance!_ \- and his other, real arm kept Ilia away from her weapon. "Do something!" she screamed.

Emerald launched herself at the man, kamas outstretched, only to be tossed aside by his ghostly arm. Ilia used the opportunity to kick the man off of her, sending him rolling away as she leaped to her feet. Emerald slammed into the tree painfully, then sprang off the ground. Running to Ilia's side, they tensed to spring at the assassin.

The man gave them a mocking salute, used his extra arm to grab the scroll fifteen feet away, then sprinted for the fenced ledge and flung himself over the edge.

"Shit!" They sprinted to the edge of the cliff to see the man springboard off another lower road and into the depths. Ilia looked wildly at Emerald. "That scroll has all of our plans on it!"

"You put _everything_ onto ONE SCROLL?!" Emerald screeched. "Are you insane? We have to go after him!"

Ilia stared at her like she was insane. "How? He just jumped off of a _cliff_!"

Emerald slung a leg over the edge and glared at Ilia. "I don't care, use your lizard powers or something! If he gets away, we're all _dead_." Before the faunus could respond, she had toppled off the edge.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Ilia yelled after Emerald's falling form. The view down was impossibly high and steep. "Gods, if I make it back to Adam alive..." she muttered, then took a running start and threw herself into the depths.

Hurdling through thin air, Emerald zeroed in on the assassin bouncing off the mountain a thousand feet below her. Instead of using each avenue, she flipped, aimed her guns straight behind her, and blasted herself off the true edge and straight into the true depths. The Kells whipped past her at breakneck speeds, screams of onlookers eerily echoing in the gaps. On course, Emerald faced herself back down just in time to twist out of the way of a dust explosion from the assassin's pistol.

 _So that's how we're going to play this game._

Wysteria Kell rose two miles above the Alitan River, and a furious mid-air duel erupted on a violent crash course for the bottom. Using one gun to propel her within striking distance of the assassin, she unleashed her other kama and sent the chain whistling towards the assassin. He winked at her, prompting a scream of outrage, then grabbed the chain with his ghost arm and yanked. Emerald dropped a hundred feet in a second, her shoulder nearly dislocating as she flew towards him. Extending her other blade, she blasted an ice dust cartridge towards the nearest sheer cliff face to send her spinning towards the assassin.

Easily ducking her wild strike, the assassin planted a kick into her chest and sent her colliding into the nearest wall, which was growing closer as the ravine narrowed. Unlike the seamless face of the middle of the Kell, the lower half was porous, with a nearly infinite network of tunnels and warrens filling the entire mountain and below. Using the momentum to pull herself sideway, she sprang from narrow ledge to wide column. Before she could think her actions through, though, the assassin ripped his ghostly arm upwards.

Emerald's kama pulled her on a crash course for the assassin, whose dusteel dagger was now lit up with the eerie red glow of fire dust. Smirking, Emerald activated her failsafe, and her chain immediately retracted. Flying past the assassin, she pulled back and sliced through the plasma, severing his aura arm halfway up. The assassin howled in pain, his eyes glowing the same lapis lazuli as his semblance, and the remnant of his arm retracted into her body. Clutching her kamas firmly in her hand, Emerald looked down.

 _Shit, the river!_

There it was – the weaving heart of the trenches that wound between the Kells, the Alitan River. It roared, snarling through white rapids and crashing up against the mountainside, far too rough for any Grimm or boat to dare navigate. Clearly the assassin had noticed too, because they both disengaged and searched for any way to stop their plummet.

A series of pipes and steel beams crisscrossed the area right above the river. Unleashing her kama, Emerald snared one of the pipes and swung herself around several times before dropping onto a nearby ledge just in time to see the assassin dart into a dimly lit tunnel. Nearly out of breath, she cursed, "Of fucking course he's a Trencher." Whipping her circlets out of her face, she sprinted into the tunnel after him. _And if the lizard died in the fall, that's just an added bonus._

The tunnels were rancid, branching off in every imaginable direction. _If I can't find a way to outmaneuver him, he's gone forever and I'll never track him down. He has every advantage right now._ Narrowing her eyes, she focused on his back as she sprinted after him, concocting a desperate illusion. _Now!_ The assassin stumbled slightly as her illusion took place, every side tunnel vanishing leaving only the wide main tunnel before him. He shot Emerald a wild look, then doubled his speed.

Tightening her clutch on her weapons victoriously, Emerald dashed after him.

Even though he couldn't see the side tunnels, she could see them just fine. Mistral's official population was two million, but Trenchers were excluded from that number. Nearly as many people lived in the underbelly of the Kells – the markets, grand underground farms and amphitheaters, slums that extended a mile high and several wide. The people they passed were filthy and fearful, mostly faunus and native Animan, and living in everything from shallow alcoves to deep tunnel networks. The lucky had doors – wood, iron, even dusteel. The unlucky were exposed to thieves, or worse.

The Underground may have quartered atop one of the Kells, but it was called the Underground for a reason. The depths were home to thousands of branches filled with people who would never be brazen enough to march into Skulla's den. The Council and the hunters held no power here; the depths were not Mistrali, or even a remnant of the Sanian Occupation. No, the depths still waited for the day the Animan Empire would return to its former glory. With the Branwen tribe and therefore the Nevermore Queen at the Underground's helm, there was a palatable hope that had slowly been fading for the past decade: that Raven Branwen would somehow reclaim her rightful throne in Mistral, and the Animan Empire would rise once more.

Emerald knew the true answer – Raven Branwen was a coward, and she would never emerge from hiding so long as Salem searched for the Spring Maiden. It had been one of the first things on Salem's briefing, that the Branwen Tribe possessed a maiden, and locating and killing the maiden was a top priority after overtaking Mistral.

There would be no true Nevermore Queen. There would be no Second Animan Empire. Trenchers were simply the last Remnant of the hope that had collapsed along with the height of human civilization, nearly a millennium ago. Four tribal kingdoms, with nothing left but the unstoppable tide of Salem and the Grimm waiting to take them under. That was the truth Emerald had learned in Salem's dark halls. That was the only thought running through her mind as she followed the assassin out of the tunnel and into a massive lit cavern.

Emerald had always pictured the world's most famous black market as a dark affair – charcoal awnings, hooded merchants, and silence. Nothing could have prepared her for the din and color blast of the Wysteria Marketplace. A rainbow of tents and stalls sprawled out into the cavern, which was simply massive. Everything was sold here, not just forbidden goods. Passing a vendor that sold corn and another booth with fine Atlesian knives, she realized that she wouldn't be able to keep up her illusion and dropped it.

The second she did so, the assassin took a hard left turn into the marketplace. Following him, Emerald used a pole to get around a table of stolen Scrolls, hurdled through a pen of live pigs, and slashed her way through a rug stall with her kamas. _This has to end soon, or else we'll attract unwanted attention._

Reaching down to her belt, Emerald unloaded her clip and substituted it for one of her neurotoxins. She'd always had an interest in poisons, from intimidation with someone like Tukson to an outright assassination. Salem had given her _plenty_ of new toys to play with.

"Going for 2,000 lien, going, sold to the fine man from Atlas!" The assassin slipped into the crowd near an elevated stage, and Emerald pushed after him in determination. She was halfway through the crowd before she realized what was being auctioned – _slaves_. The Atlesian the auctioneer had mentioned earlier proudly made his way to the stage, doffing his hat to the crowd as a chained aquatic faunus, beaten and wearing rags, was forcibly pushed towards him. A black brand had been burned to her neck, and the man placed a dusteel collar around her neck with his personal emblem on it. Emerald's stomach turned and tore her gaze away and forced herself to keep chasing after the assassin.

Slavery was outlawed on Remnant, but you could buy _anything_ in the Mistrali black markets.

 _This chase needs to end now._ Looking around wildly for any advantage, Emerald spotted an abandoned tent that was slowly decaying on a nearby path. Concentrating, she crafted the most complicated illusion she'd done in weeks, prayed to the gods that it would work, and sprinted straight for the abandoned tent.

The assassin threw a panicked look over his shoulder – sure enough, Emerald was still chasing. He began to muster the will to push forwards, knowing stopping meant his certain death, only to stop short as Ilia stepped out into the path before him. Fear overtaking him, he looked around wildly; the only escape was through an abandoned old tent. Gripping his dagger tighter, he took a sharp turn into the tent and ran straight into the blade of Emerald's kama.

Emerald gave him a vicious grin as she ripped the blade from her chest and kicked the dagger from his hand. Getting behind him in an instant and pressing her gun to his neck, she whispered, "I have 500 milligrams of Grimmsbane loaded. If you even _think_ about playing smart with me, I will make you regret being born."

Sinking to his knees, the assassin coughed up a bit of blood. "You're insane! Grimmsbane's enough to kill somebody with a twenty milligram dose! That much- That..." His eyes widened. "Who the hell is paying you?"

Emerald cocked her clip and kneed him in the back. He gave a long wheeze, his stomach injury slowly burning through the remains of his Aura. "What's your name and who do you work for?"

He spat on the ground before her. "Go to hell, Kella. I don't give a fuck what game you think you're playing with the Underground, but Branwen's going to put your head on a fucking stake."

Eyes narrowing, Emerald rammed her knee into his back again, and he fell to all fours. Pointing her gun at his back, she snarled, "Last chance, or I pull the trigger. Do you want to _reconsider_ that answer?"

"Oh, I want to reconsider it, alright." Before Emerald had a chance to react, the assassin's ghost arm shot out of his back and ripped her gun out of her hands. Emerald dove to one side in abject fear as he pulled the trigger. The dart buried itself in the faded tarp and immediately began to corrode the cloth, eating away at the material and turning the edges black. The assassin himself fell flat to the ground, only his arm still functional.

Emerald gaped as she had to roll out of the way of three more darts. _Oh gods. He knows he's going to die, so he's transferred all his energy from his wound to his semblance._ She fell flat on her stomach, and a fourth dart nearly grazed her head.

 _He's going to take me with him with my own weapon._

A whip snaked into the tent and punched through the ghostly arm with a burst of lightning. Emerald's gun clattered harmlessly to the ground, and the assassin howled in pain. Before he could react, Emerald grabbed her gun, pressed it to his neck, and pulled the trigger.

The assassin immediately went stiff. The blood drained from his exposed face and neck, turning his skin deathly pale. Ilia stepped into the room with a panicked expression, only to turn green – her entire body, not just her spots – and take two steps back as the assassins' veins slowly started to darken. First they were crimson, the blood showing through, then they darkened to black as the assassin began to write on the ground, foaming at the mouth.

"Enough!" Ilia cried, then strode forwards and sunk her whip into his neck. The man stopped moving, his body an abhorrent black and white abomination from the poison. She looked at Emerald, queasy. "What did you _do_ to him?"

Emerald shrugged. "Grimmsbane. One of the deadliest poisons on Remnant. It's a concentrate of the bacterial organisms that inhabit Grimm blood. They… corrupt animal blood. It takes about thirty seconds to spread through the entire circulatory system, then slowly starts rotting everything else. Grimm blood and humans don't mix very well."

Staggering away from the body, Ilia puked in the corner of the tent. Before the chase, Emerald might have mocked her for it, but the faunus _had_ just saved her life, so she just waited for her to regain her composure.

Her skin slowly fading back to a soft brown, Ilia looked at Emerald with hollow eyes. "I killed him."

Emerald narrowed her eyes at the other girl. She was shaking all over, and her spots kept shifting colors – blue, then green, then red, then black. "You're a commander of the largest terrorist organization in the world," she told Ilia. _If she doesn't get her shit together, I'm going to lose my patience._ "It's a nasty poison, but I don't take _kindly_ when I have to jump off of mountains. You'll see worse before this is over."

"No." Ilia's voice was insistent, and the silver glow of the light outside lit her eyes up. "You don't understand. I was stationed on Menagerie, Sustrai. _Menagerie_. I _killed_ him."

 _Oh._ Emerald stared at Ilia, ebony spots freckling her face. Ilia looked distraught, eyes flickering from the body to Emerald. _She needs confirmation._ Emerald stood frozen for a long while, then hardened her resolve. _She has to learn. If she doesn't, this game is going to eat her alive._

Ilia flinched when Emerald gave her an emotionless glare. "I killed my first man when I was eight," she said, her tone unflinching, biting. Ilia shrunk back, horror growing on her face. "We are planning a violent coup of a kingdom. You will kill more people before this month is over. The next person who catches you mourning over people who deserved to die will kill you before you get a chance to draw a weapon. Get used to murder, Amitola." She turned away, hearing the faunus shudder behind her.

"That's not how the White Fang works, though," Ilia said quietly. "We capture and we fight, but we don't kill people in cold blood."

Emerald laughed at that. "Don't play that bullshit with me. We were both in Vale during the massacre. The White Fang isn't a rights group, it's an army that _you_ are partially in charge of. If you don't get your shit together, you'll be just as dead as _him_."

Turning around, she kicked the dead assassin. Ilia's eyes were squeezed shut and her fists clenched, and her entire body was slowly turning black. "Why? Why are you telling me this?" she demanded, her voice thick with grief.

"I pay my debts," Emerald whispered, stepping up to Ilia until they were face to face. Gray and red eyes met. "You saved my life. This is me saving yours. I have no life debt to you. There are people with more power than you can _possibly imagine_ in this world, and we are both in their paths. Never forget what we are doing or for who. The second you do, you'll be dead."

Despite her clenched eyes, a tear leaked down Ilia's cheek. "That's who gave you that poison. That's who you work for. No- that's _what_ you work for."

"And never, _ever_ forget it," Emerald hissed, then pushed the faunus away. Ilia stumbled back two paces, grabbing a tent pole to regain her balance. "The plan has changed. Skulla probably already knows we killed her assassin. We have to attack soon, or else it'll be far too late."

Stooping down, Emerald took the scroll from the dead man's pocket and tossed it to Ilia. Ilia caught it and slipped it into her own pocket with shaky hands and a jerky nod. "I- I have to be alone," she stammered. The colors over her body rippled, then she vanished from Emerald's vision.

Emerald stared at where Ilia had been, her mind whirling.

Cinder would have been more than condescending to Ilia, even though they would have been allies. Mercury would have just laughed in her face.

 _Why did I do that? Why do I care about people I should hate?_

One thing was certain, though. She couldn't afford to wait to move against Skulla, not anymore. It was time to take the Underground for her own.

* * *

 _Ozpin. His name is Ozpin._

Oscar Pine's room was on the far side of the attic of a small farmhouse in the middle of Mistral's rural outer bounds. Sitting on his bed, Oscar could hear the rusty creaking of the weather vane positioned above his window. A spider wandered across his ceiling, and his carpet was matte from years of dirt and dust. The forest cradled the homestead on all sides, a short path the only connection to the nearby main road.

Oscar didn't notice any of that, though. His nose was buried deep in one of his favorite books – _Collected Animan Fables –_ and he was intently throwing all his attention into the words to distract himself from, well-

"Oscar, supper's almost ready!"Aunt Celia called from downstairs, her voice muffled through the floor.

"What're we having?" he called back.

"Doesn't matter, you're eating it!"

"I never agreed to these terms!"

He could almost hear the eye roll in his aunt's tone. "It's part of the "living under my roof" contract! Read the fine print, then come wash up!"

Grinning to himself, Oscar shut his book and put it aside. He watched the spider as it tried to find an exit from his room for a moment, then got to his feet and made to go downstairs.

 _"_ _We need to leave."_

The spider found a hole in the ceiling and disappeared through. Oscar thought that even if the spider could've understood him, he wouldn't have had the heart to tell it it was just going to another part of the house.

 _"_ _Oscar. Oscar!"_

Oscar put his hand on the door handle, his stomach growling, then paused. "I've decided you're not real, so you may as well give up," he told the knob.

Doorknobs weren't supposed to talk back. _"I understand how you're feeling. I went through the same panic and confusion."_

 _I guess I'm not going to dinner yet._ Oscar picked an open book off the floor and slid it onto his bookshelf. "It's not real, it's not real, it's not real."

 _"_ _I can assure you, you are perfectly sane."_

"I'm talking to a voice in my head," Oscar told his reflection in the window. His reflection looked worried. He supposed he was worried too.

 _"_ _I never said you were normal._ _I said you were sane._ _There is quite a significant difference betwe-"_

"Shut up! You think this is funny?" Oscar asked the ceiling. At least the spider made sense. It got into his room, then it left. The voice in his head – _Ozpin –_ showed up one day and never left.

 _"_ _We are in complete agreement on that matter, I promise you. Believe me, I wish this weren't the case. But as I've told you, our Aura, our souls are combined."_

Oscar rose to his feet, disgusted with himself. "I'm done listening to you." If Aunt Celia knew he was going crazy, she would send him to the doctor in Galina, the nearby town. He knew as well as anyone the old shrink charged far more than he gave, and he would never make his aunt lose so much hard work.

Even if that meant going insane in silence.

 _"_ _Have you ever been to Vale?"_

Vale was an entire continent away, and Oscar was getting hungry. Pushing his door open, he pulled his gloves off and quickly washed his hands before descending down the stairs.

Celia Pine was a hardened woman. With a stocky build typical of Animan women, she had spent a lifetime cultivating and protecting a farm on one of the most dangerous frontiers on Remnant. Grimm and bandits were a constant threat – the Branwen tribe had struck Galina three time in the past five years. Celia wore her brown hair back in a no-nonsense bun and a battered dusteel chest-piece over her overalls. The armor was a Pine family heirloom from a better time; there was no way they could have afforded it now, and she had no better weapon than a pitchfork. Oscar hadn't received any combat training from her yet, being only fourteen, but he was a fair hand with his farm tools and his aura had been unlocked since a close scrape with an Ursa at age eight.

"Took you long enough!" she said to Oscar as he entered the kitchen. A soup pot was merrily boiling on the stove. He opened one of the rickety wooden cabinets and pulled out two bowls and spoons, setting them out on the wooden table.

His gaze lingered on the old ceramic for a moment. "I was… lost in my thoughts."

Celia turned off the stove and set the pot down on the handmade trivet in the center of the table. Ladling them each a large portion, she shook her head. "You and those books of yours, Oscar. You won't need to be thinking much soon, y'know. July'll be gone in a week, and harvest starts right after that."

Oscar's eyes lit up. "And I turn fifteen in August!"

Celia gave him a sad smile, taking a long sip of soup. "You sure will. You've been here with me for more than six years now, huh?"

A shadow clouded Oscar's thoughts for a moment, the memory of his parent's death rising unburdened to the front of his mind. His father, Aunt Celia's brother, had married the daughter of one of Galina's shopkeepers. After his grandfather had passed away, his parents had happily run the general store for several years and had Oscar. Oscar had been home with a babysitter when the Grimm had gotten his parents. He had lived with Aunt Celia ever since, and the general store was run by the Varra family now (although Aunt Celia still got special discounts).

 _That's not important right now_. He had accepted his parent's death years ago. Now it was just time to fulfill his promise to them. "Since I'm fifteen, you're finally going to train me after harvest, right?"

Celia nodded. "A promise is a promise, and these bones aren't getting any younger. It's about time I have somebody to help out with the Grimm – gods know the townspeople ask me to help them fight enough! Long as you don't mind fighting without armor." She tapped her dusteel plate with a lopsided grin, and Oscar nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course not! I'll be a great fighter, you'll see!" he exclaimed. He could already imagine himself standing on top of a pile of dead Beowulves, pitchfork in hand. _Maybe I could even be a hunter some day! Then our village would never have to worry about bandits or Grimm again!_

Why was there a note of sadness and wistfulness at the back of his mind at the thought?

Refilling her bowl, Celia hummed in acknowledgement. "Let's worry about the crops first, yeah?" she mumbled through a full mouth of soup. "I heard the berry farm a few towns over got raided last month by Branwen, took the whole strawberry crop. Weather's been good this year. If they don't play at our corn fields, it'll be a godsdamned miracle!"

"That's why you've got to train me, Aunt Celia," Oscar said earnestly. "If the bandits come, I can stab them with the pitchfork!"

Celia laughed, then grew somber. "Look, Oscar… I know you're still a kid and all-"

"Am not! I'm almost fifteen!"

"-but there's some things in this rotten world that you just don't get in the way of, you hear me?" she asked in a hushed tone, leaning over the soup bowl. A cloud drifted away from the moon, revealing the shattered celestial body through the window. "The Branwen Tribe is old Anima, Oscar. The Nevermore Queen's done in more villages than any I've ever heard of, even in the story books. You were only a babe so you wouldn't remember, but the Tribe War tore this land apart and _she's_ the one that came out on top. They've got power, real power. Some people, people who remember the old ways, they've been saying she's gonna take back Mistral, Anima."

Oscar's eyes were wide. "But I thought they were just bandits!" he protested. "I've never seen a Nevermore Queen."

"Neither have I, kiddo," she said, "and that's a damn good thing! People like that, powerful people, they don't give a damn about you. It doesn't matter whether you've got a good eye for crops, or if you spend too much time with your nose in a book, or if you've got a fair hand with that pitchfork you go on about. If you get in their way, they'll pull you into their chaos until you drown, and don't you _ever_ forget it!"

Oscar was finished with his soup. Putting the spoon back down, he tilted his head. "But what if they come and raid our farm again?"

Sighing, Celia rose and carried the pot to the stove. Her back turned to him, she stared out the window. "We'll survive if we lose another harvest, but I won't lose you like I lost your mama and your papa, Oscar Pine. I swear it by the gods. We'll be alright."

Oscar stacked his dishes with his aunt's and carried them to the sink. He hesitated for a moment – maybe he should tell her about the voice after all? _No,_ he decided. Wrapping his arms around his aunt, he mumbled, "Thank you for dinner, Aunt Celia."

A calloused hand gently rested on his head. "Yeah," Celia murmured, looking past him out the window. "Wash off and head to bed, alright? Don't stay up reading too late, we got work to do tomorrow. You've got plenty of weeks to be thinking about training and adventures."

Oscar climbed halfway back up the stairs before-

 _"_ _Oscar, listen to me_."

"No," he whispered so Celia couldn't hear. "You're not real. Harvest and my birthday and Aunt Celia are. This is where my life is meant to be, not Vale."

 _"And are you so sure of that?"_

Something twinged in Oscar's heart, but he ignored it. "I don't know what you want from me, but bad things are happening in Vale. Aunt Celia says not to get in the way of that sort of thing, and I trust her more than anyone, _especially_ you."

 _"_ _But-"_

"No." Oscar looked fiercely at the farmhouse around him. "I don't care what you say. This is my home, my family's home, and I'm. not. leaving." Glowing at the bannister (he had decided he was talking to the bannister), he climbed the rest of the stairs and entered his room once more.

 _"_ _I see I won't be convincing you of anything else tonight. Perhaps tomorrow you will… understand the urgency of our predicament. Good night, Oscar."_

"Good night," Oscar muttered to his lamp, the inconvenient thought that lamps can't have telepathic conversations with people floating across his mind.

No, Oscar Pine knew who he was and where he wanted to be. He had a good roof over his head, and aunt that loved him, and books and the promise of training to look forwards to. There was no way in hell he'd willingly let some voice in his head take it all away from him.

* * *

She came to slowly. First it was the sense of Ruby fading, panicking as their dreamscape fell away. For a long moment, she wandered through her own dreams: her and Mom and shadow Ruby, laughing over some stupid joke her Rose had told. That slipped away too, and she was left in darkness. Something soft rested over her legs and arms; her bodysuit was gone, some sort of nightgown taking its place. Vague warmth rested on her cheek.

Neo's eyes fell open, pure pink. She stared at the chipped white ceiling for a long time. _So we_ were _in a coma._ She felt weak, and it took physical exertion to roll over onto her side, where she felt her aura pulling to Ruby's.

Her stomach twisted when she did. Ruby was pasty and limp, her head lolling off to one side. Where one of her silver eyes had been, there was only a silver orb and a patch of metallic skin. _No._ Neo reached to brush the hair out of her face but was stopped by the tug of her IV drip. Angrily pulling it from her arm and the ventilator from her nose, she rested her hand on Ruby's cheek.

 _I have to show her._

Ignoring the furious beeping on her monitor and the yells from downstairs, Neo fell back onto her side of the bed and let her exhaustion take her back under.

Ruby tackled her with a hug when she reappeared in their mindscape. "What happened? Did you wake up?!"

Neo nodded. "Yeah, but only for a minute."

Catching her frown and conflicting emotions, Ruby matched it with one of her own. "Something's wrong."

Neo nodded hesitantly, searching Ruby's face for a long moment before releasing her memory of her bondmate's face.

Ruby looked at the bleak portrait of herself for a long moment of dead silence. Snow began to fall around them, accumulating on the grassy knoll they had been resting on. "I lost an eye," she stated, her hand reaching up to touch her face. "Because of the silver eyes?"

"I think so."

Nodding, Ruby slowly sank to the ground. "I… I can see fine here, but that's just like your tongue, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Neo stepped past her, staring out at the sparkling azure ocean below them. The edge of the world was still visible, slowly but steadily filling in as Ruby's mind was healed. "What do you want me to do, Rose? I could wake back up and talk to everyone for you, or I can stay here until you're ready."

"Go." Ruby flopped backwards onto the hill, staring up at the sky. "Now that you're awake, we can tell everyone how we're doing. I'll be okay for a couple hours alone."

Bending down, Neo kissed her forehead. "I'll be back." Concentrating, she rose back to consciousness.

When she opened her eyes for a second time, one was pink and one was white. Tai, Weiss, and Nora were all clustered around her bedside, staring down at her in concern. Neo reached for her semblance but found her aura was still completely diverted towards healing Ruby. Biting back a sigh, she opted instead for a weak smile and a peace sign. _Where's Blake?_ she wanted to ask, disheartened that her closest friend beyond Ruby was absent.

"Bella, you're awake," Tai murmured.

She _really_ had to fight not to roll her eyes at that. _No shit, Xiao Long_. Nodding with a wide, very fake smile, she held out one hand and pantomimed writing on it with the other.

Weiss' eyes widened. "I'll go get your scroll," she said, then ran out of the room.

Tai waited patiently for her to get back, and Neo fidgeted uncomfortably beneath his searching gaze. Who even was he to her? Ruby's dad? Her mom's ex-husband? Did that make him her dad? _I have no fucking clue._ Finally, Weiss returned with her scroll and handed it to her and Tai asked, "So how are you? You and Ruby have been in a coma for a month."

 _A month?_ Eyes widening, she quickly typed out, _"But it was only ten days last time!"_

Tai frowned thoughtfully. "Rubes didn't use nearly as much power last time, though. How are you feeling?"

 _"_ _Weak."_ Neo tried to sit up and failed, falling back onto her pillow. Sighing, she tapped out, _"Ruby isn't ready to wake up yet. She told me I should go ahead so I can show her how everyone is."_

"You can talk to her?" Weiss exclaimed.

Neo eyed her team leader. _"What do you think we've been doing for the past month?"_

She received a helpless shrug in return. "I don't know, being unconscious?" Neo snickered.

"Rae and Pyrrha are training right now. I'm sure she'll be happy to know you're awake," Tai said.

She blinked. _There were so many things wrong with that statement. "Mom is coming here? Does that mean Pyrrha is the maiden? You two are back-"_

Tai rested his hand on hers to cut her off. "I don't know if your mom and I will ever be back together again," he said quietly. "But was are on speaking terms again. Me, her, and Qrow have been working through… everything together."

Neo's face lit up, and she gave him a broad smile. _"That's great!"_ she exclaimed. _"Does that mean the promise about Yang is over? Is Qrow back in the tribe?"_

"Qrow isn't so simple, but Yang and Blake have been staying with the tribe. Blake is a member now."

 _"_ _What about Pyrrha?"_

Tai's face fell. "That's a little more complicated."

As Tai, Weiss, and Nora explained the massacre and attack to her, Neo's face slowly paled until her hands were shaking by the end. _Jaune and Ren are dead? Yang lost an arm? Emmy and Merc were working for_ Cinder?! _I knew about Cinder. I knew she was planning something big. How did I never notice them? How could-_ Her mind drew an absolute blank. _We thought they were_ dead. Eyes growing violent, she started to type, _"We though Emmy and Merc were_ dead! _We went to their funeral!"_

"I know," Weiss hissed. "It was all a set up. They never died. We didn't lose anybody on that mission." The heiress had a fire in her eyes that was unfamiliar to Neo.

 _"_ _I'm going to kill Emmy if I ever see her again. Her and Cinder,"_ Neo tapped out. _"It's not like there's any point in hiding from Cinder and Salem anymore. If Harkan is working with them, they already know perfectly well who I am. What I am."_

Nora nodded, even though Tai had a sad look on. "I'll take you to their graves when you're well enough to walk," she said quietly. "We buried them by the lily pad two weeks ago. Everyone was here."

 _"_ _Thank you."_

 _Jaune is dead._

Jaune, the perfectly innocent boy who loved Pyrrha and his hoodie. Jaune, the boy they had blackmailed into training. Jaune, the boy who had hated them for dragging Pyrrha into their mess.

Jaune, the boy who had never forgiven them.

Intense guilt slammed into Neo; Ruby's guilt, in part, but also some of her own. She squeezed her eyes shut, leaning back onto the pillow. _Jaune is dead. Ren is dead._

"Bella… C'mon, girls, let's give her a bit of space."

Neo's eyes snapped open, and she quickly typed, " _Wait."_ The trio paused, and Neo sighed. _"Say something to Ruby, please. I promised her I'd get messages from you guys."_

Tai nodded, then strode forwards and hugged Neo tightly. She stiffened, _very_ unused to being hugged by anyone but Ruby or her mom. "I love you, Rubes," he whispered into her ear. "We're all here for you when you wake up. You've been so brave. Everything is going to turn out fine, I promise."

Nora put her hands on her hips as Tai broke away, leaving a confused Neo behind. "Ruby, wake up soon, okay? You've been sleeping for a month, that's _waaaay_ too long! You've missed breakfast! Raven made us pancakes, they were great!" The huntress leaned in with an evil glint in her eye. "We're even eating all the cookies _without you_ , so you better feel better soon."

"Ruby." Weiss sat down next to Neo. "Look, I might not be around when you wake up. I have to go to Atlas tomorrow to visit my father." She rolled her eyes. "I know, it's going to be awful, but at least I get to see Winter. The point is… Even when I'm in Atlas and Yang and Blake are in Anima, we're still here for you, okay? We'll all come back soon, you'll see. Just… feel better." Weiss gave Neo a weak smile. "I told Yang you would design a crazy prosthetic for her, after all."

Before Weiss could stand up, Neo pushed herself upwards and hugged her team leader. Weiss stiffened in her embrace, then hugged her back. "I love you too, Ruby," she mumbled. "Just wake up. Please."

Neo's face fell, and she fought to bring her expression back to normal before pulling away. She reached for her Scroll to type, her fingers resting above the glass, then she let it fall to the side. She gave the heiress a weak smile that never reached her eyes, wishing for everything in the world that she could speak.

 _That wasn't Ruby, Weiss. That was me. I hugged you. I'm the one who's awake, not Rose._

 _That was me. I'm not her._

She opened her mouth, and nothing but a weak whimper came out.

Pity. Weiss corrected her expression in an instant, but it was there. "Get some sleep, Violet," Weiss murmured. "Thank you for letting me talk to Ruby." Not waiting for Neo to respond, the heiress swept out of the room.

Ruby wasn't strong enough to talk to her while she was comatose. In the deafening silence, Neo clenched her eyes shut and curled up against Ruby, desperately wishing herself back to sleep, unsure whether the moisture in her eyes was for the dead, for Ruby, or for herself.

 _That was me, Weiss. That was me._

* * *

"Mom?"

Raven and Vernal looked up. Yang was leaning against the main entrance to Raven's tent with her arm propped up against the pole. Vernal rose from the table and nodded at Yang, and Raven asked, "Yang? Do you need something?"

Yang took a deep break. "Actually, I was wondering if we could talk right now." Her eyes flicked to Vernal for a moment, then back to her mom.

"I'll go meet with Silo," Vernal said. She strode out of the room, giving Yang a smile as she passed.

"She likes you," Raven commented, gesturing for her to sit down. "Vernal's notoriously prickly, you've made a real impression on her. Tea?"

"Yeah, sure."

Raven poured Yang a cup from her antique pot, which Yang accepted with her single hand. She wore a yellow casual jacket Tai had brought her from home, which hung loosely over her stump. Yang took a long sip of tea, which was fantastic. If she had learned one thing with the tribe, it was that just because they were nomadic didn't mean they didn't lead comfortable lives.

"Blake isn't with you," Raven noted with a hint of amusement.

Yang nodded. "Yeah, she's training with Matteo. I think they're working on her semblance, trying to figure out how to replicate what she did at- at-" She trailed off, her hand shaking as she fought to keep her memory of Adam under control.

Raven nodded. "I'm glad that you two are making friends with the rest of the young adults."

"Blake is making friends." Yang glared at her shaking hand, then reached down to try and pick up the tea cup. The china rattled against the tea plate, hot tea sloshing over the rim. Raven's gloved hand shot down to steady her wrist. Yang looked up at her mother's concerned eyes. "I don't need help," she muttered, carefully drawing the cup towards-

 _Blake had told her she didn't need help when she was killing herself obsessing over the video and the protest and-_

 _The robots were firing. Blood filled the streets._

 _Adam Taurus drew back his sword._

The tea cup crashed to the ground, shattering and splattering her exposed leg with hot tea. Yang recoiled, crawling away as fast as she could with a single arm. Her heart raced unevenly like an amputee making her final dash in a marathon, nails biting her palm. She had to fight down the panic attack, chest shaking rapidly, her breath coming in short bursts. _I won't be weak in front of Mom. I won't, I can't, I-_

"Yang..." The corners of Raven's lips turned downward with some hidden emotion. Yang decided it was pity.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, golden hair spilling into her face as she hung her head.

The tent flap fell closed, and a hardened gauntlet rested on Yang's back. "You have nothing to be sorry for. _Nothing_." Raven's voice was intense. Yang looked away.

"'The weak die. The strong survive.' That's what people say around here, isn't it? I lost in a single attack. I should be dead."

"I've been protecting you," Raven whispered to her. "You were wrapped up in a conflict you had no part in, and it had a consequence. That's doesn't matter. You're here now."

Yang twisted away from Raven and jumped to her feet, her eyes turning blood red. "Don't just talk about it like it's nothing!" she yelled, throwing her arm out to the side. "I lost a _part_ of me, Mom! Just because my family finally decided to start caring about me again doesn't mean I can just forget about it! I couldn't protect Ruby, I couldn't protect Blake, and _this_ is my punishment!" She gestured to her empty sleeve.

Raven rose to her feet as well, something slipping behind a cool mask. "Yang, I understand what loss feels like, but you've done nothing but wallow if your self-pity and misery for a month." Yang opened her mouth, but Raven held up a finger to cut her off. " _Don't_ try to tell me that's not what you've been doing. I'm not blind. Every time the Core or I have tried to discuss your injury with you, you deflect with puns or good humor."

"You have no idea what I'm going through," Yang growled, "so don't psychoanalyze me!"

"Don't take that tone with me," Raven said, her own anger starting to creep into her tone.

Yang ignored her. "You haven't even come to talk to me properly since I got here." Raven tried to protest, but she cut her off. "Oh, _sure,_ I've seen plenty of Silo and Vernal and Greaser, but where have you been? We're _right next_ to your tent, if you hadn't noticed. Would it kill you to come and talk to your daughter for one fucking-"

"Be quiet!" Anger unfolded like a morning blossom – it started in Raven's eyes, in the violence of her lips and the tension in her jaw. "Do you even understand what it means to be a part of this tribe?!"

"No, maybe if somebody _actually explained_ shit to me and stopped treating me like a three-year-old, I would! I'm tired of people never telling me things! I'm tired of people leaving me in the dark!" Yang screamed.

"If you want people to stop treating me like a child, then stop acting like one!" Raven stalked towards Yang, a dusteel bite in her eye. "You want an explanation? Here's one: the Branwen Tribe is the _only_ thing standing between millions of people and Grimm on all damned corners of this continent. I am single-handedlyresponsible for the protection of an _entire_ ethnic group spanning a continent, as well as keeping _this_ -" Raven's hazy blue corona exploded to life around her. "-out of the hands of an evil Grimm overlord who sends assassins after me every time I leave this camp! _Forgive me_ if I don't have hours of time to spend with my teenage daughter who can't get over herself for long enough to start actually improving so I won't have to bury you next you fight somebody who can hold a sword better than a five-year-old!"

"SHUT UP!" Yang slugged her mother square in the jaw, sending her mother stumbling back several paces. It wasn't until Raven stopped moving and held a hand gingerly to her face that she registered what she had done. Her eyes abruptly turned lilac, and she sagged a little bit.

"You hit me," Raven said, looking up at Yang with an unreadable expression.

"You abandoned me." Yang blinked furiously, her fist clenching to a painful ball. "I knew nothing about you. Dad and Qrow wouldn't talk about you. I almost got myself killed looking for you. I almost got _Ruby_ killed looking for you."

Expression hard, Raven said, "You know what I promised."

Yang laughed harshly, her throat clenched, the pain ringing in her chest and stump. "That promise? The promise to 'protect Dad's family?' That went the fucking window the _second_ you started talking to Ruby. I was in the same room." There was an empty silence. "Did you hear me? I said I lived in the SAME FUCKING ROOM as Ruby and Bella for SIX MONTH while you were visiting them, and you call that staying away from me? RUBY ISN'T EVEN YOUR DAUGHTER! I AM!"

"Ya-"

"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Yang shrieked. "Did you ever care about me? Bella was bonded to rapists and your enemy in a fucking _tribal war_ , and you STILL visited her? Even when you could see me, you never did! WHY DO YOU CARE MORE ABOUT YOUR ADOPTED DAUGHTER THAN YOU DO ABOUT ME? WHY DO YOU CARE MORE ABOUT RUBY THAN ME?"

"Of course I care about you," Raven whispered fiercely, a glint of emotion in her eyes.

"Then why don't you show it?!"

"I left you to protect you."

"Bullshit," Yang sneered.

Raven recoiled, anger clouding her vision once more. "Don't you _dare. I_ have suffered every day for sixteen years to keep myself away from you because I knew that the _second_ my enemies or Salem knew who you really were, you would be nothing but a pawn to lure me out. _Forgive me_ if I've been a little busy _running a continent_ to be your mom every second that you've been here!

Yang looked at her with dead red eyes. "No. You're not my mom. You're my mother. Summer Rose was my mom. She was super mom. She baked us cookies, told us stories, taught me how to fight monsters. And guess what – she was in charge of saving the world too, and she was _always there. Always._ You're just the person who had me and was too afraid to stay with me the second things seemed to go south."

Gaping at her, Raven seemed to deflate a bit, "Yang-"

Yang got to her feet and walked to the exit. Before stepping out, she looked back at Raven. "This isn't about you. Maybe if you wanted to protect me, you would have actually been there to do it. Protecting me would have been bringing me here to live with you, teaching me how to fight. You _abandoned_ me, and don't you fucking dare call it anything else." Hair blowing out behind her, she fled the tent.

Blake didn't ask any questions when Yang came running back from Raven's tent. She just held her; no words, no tears, just understanding.

* * *

"Klein!"

Weiss' butler staggered as Weiss sprinted out of the SDC aircraft and tackled him with a hug. Laughing, Klein hugged her back. "Ah, Weiss, it's so good to have you home. You were dearly missed over winter break.

Letting go and dropping to the ground, Weiss snorted. "Somehow, I seriously doubt that."

"Well, _I_ dearly missed you," Klein said with a chuckle, nodding to the servants carrying Weiss' bags inside. "Come in, come in. You ought to eat lunch before speaking with your father, and I made your favorite..."

"Beef bourguignon?" Weiss asked hopefully, and Klein nodded. Grinning, she said, "You're the best!"

Klein just gave her a warm smile and led her inside.

The Schnee family mansion sprawled over three hundred acres on the wealthy southern ridge of the city of Atlas. The house itself was fifteen thousand square feet, complete with courtyards, spiraling staircases and towers, a pool complex, and a stunning Grimm-free forest reaching from the best guarded highway on Solitas to the Danibraus Drop, a hundred foot cliff that provided the nearly-impenetrable natural fortifications that encircled Atlas' southern side. Weiss herself had a six room suite, complete with a personal sitting room, a bedroom, a study, two walk-in closets, and a master bathroom. Her other rooms included a music room for her singing lesson, a combat room (Winter's was next door), and one of the mansion's four towers (her mother's suite was in one, and Whitley and her father each had one.

The inside of the mansion shimmered crystal blue and gold. Weiss and Klein walked side by side through the halls, Weiss recounting the adventures and tragedy of the past few months. Klein led her to the third casual dining hall, where a simple twelve person table was already set out completely, steaming dishes at the far end of the table. Graciously taking her seat at one end, she looked up at Klein hopefully. "Would you like to join me?"

Klein stared at the beef dish wistfully but shook his head. "Ah, you remember the rules, Weiss. If your father or younger brother were to wander in..."

Weiss sighed, deflating in her chair slightly. "Of course. I understand." She didn't, really. The table was not so different from the one in the Beacon cafeteria. The twelve person table was enough to seat all four of her teammates _and_ Team JNPR – well, Pyrrha and Nora – _and_ Team SSSN, with room to spare. Instead, here she was, alone.

Again.

World class beef bourguignon wasn't the same after sharing every meal with Yang and Blake for months.

It was harder to talk to Klein when he was forced to stand behind her, so much of the meal passed in silence. When Weiss finished, she got to her feet and pushed her bowl away. _Let's just get this over with._ "I want to go see my father now," she announced, and Klein nodded graciously.

"You know the way?"

"Yes." Weiss gave him a pinched smile. "Thank you, Klien."

Klein bowed to her. "Of course, it's my pleasure."

Her father's study was in the east wing on the second floor, at the end of a long airy hallway that looked out over the Drop and the wide plain stretching out below. Family portraits hung on the walls, portraits of Weiss' grandfather and her mother, portraits from a happier time.

"Hello, sister."

Whitley Schnee leaned against a marble column, giving her an obnoxious wave when she noticed him. Weiss' mood dropped even further. "Whitley."

"What's this, not even a hug hello for your dear brother?" he sniped, extending his arms. Reluctantly, Weiss embraced her brother. _Yang_ really _wanted me to punch him, didn't she?_

She fought her impulse to actually _do_ it under control and settled for the satisfying image of him falling to the floor. She had never liked her brother. He was a spoiled, arrogant brat (not that she hadn't been not so long ago) but he also held father's favor and she didn't. She could already tell her absence had gone to his head. "Is father here?"

Whitley inclined his head. "I hope you've thought through what you're going to say. Father was _very_ displeased when he returned from Vale empty-handed." He raised a hand and swept past her, leaving her path to the office clear.

Weiss scowled at the ground for a moment, then shook her head and strode to the office.

Jacques looked as a sharp knock came from the door. "Come in," he called, his passing interest gone as he returned his attention to the financial documents scattered across his desk.

Weiss carefully opened the door and slipped inside, standing on the far side of the room. "Hello, father," she said, politely inclining her head to him.

Sighing, he placed his pen on the desk and rested his chin on his interlocked fingers. "Weiss. You may sit."

No comments on her manners, nothing but neutrality. _Well, it could have started worse._ Warily, Weiss approached the desk and pulled up a chair. "Thank you," she said stiffly. She had brought her father's leadership book on the plane with her, the one she had tried to use in the fall but disregarded for everything except the dance. There was a sizeable section on proper manners, and she had needed the fifteen hour flight as a refresher.

Jacques raised a questioning eyebrow, but let it drop after a moment when Weiss stoically refused to react. Leaning forwards, he said, "I have been reading reports on your actions during the… massacre in Vale. Your heroism is commendable. Our company's stock rose three percent from the publicity, between your actions and Winter's appointment."

Weiss couldn't keep her surprise off her face at that – had her father just complimented her? "Father?" she murmured.

Steadfastly ignoring her, Jacques picked another folder off his desk. "Your grades have been… acceptable, and I was pleased to learn that you had been selected to lead your team, even though some of your… _teammates_ leave something to be desired." Weiss opened her mouth to retort – _How_ dare _he talk about Blake like that?_ \- but he cut her off. "I received a personal call from Headmaster Goodwitch praising your leadership and bravery after my visit, which, no doubt, was motivated by her, ah, _desire_ to keep Vale afloat."

"Thank you," Weiss said, stunned. _Could this mean he is actually pleased with my progress?_

Jacques sighed again, closing his eyes. "I must admit, I was rather taken aback by your… reaction to my presence in Vale. I had half a mind to strip your inheritance and give it to Whitley." Weiss' eyes went wide. "However, after further consideration, I have decided I cannot fault you for learning the leadership skills I sent you to Vale to learn in the first place." His eyes snapped open, and he gave Weiss a chilly stare. "Do not prove my judgement wrong."

Weiss' back shot upwards, and she stammered, "Yes- Of- of course!" The fact that she had almost lost her title of heiress sunk in like a spear, chilling her to the bone.

"Do not stammer. It is unbecoming of an heiress." Jacques rose from his chair and faced his bookshelf, running his finger along the tomes. "I will allow you to return to Beacon. The terrorist attack on the Vytal Festival has been _extraordinarily_ destructive to our country. I'm sure that you are aware that when Vale threatened to declare war after the massacre, the council forged a defense pact with Vale pledging out _human_ troops and support in case of another attack. Understand that if that pact fails and Atlas and Vale go to war, you will return home _immediately._ "

Weiss nodded. She had anticipated her would ask this of her. "Understood."

Jacques nodded curtly. "If your grades slip or another tragedy of this magnitude occurs under your watch, Whitley will become my heir. You will continue to assist in the relief efforts. If you are interviewed, you speak as the heiress of the SDC. You will call me once a month to inform me of your progress. I have already restored credit to your card. Do not embarrass this family or make me regret this choice."

"Yes, father."

Jacques turned to face her directly. "Should you continue to succeed in your studies, you will return to Atlas next summer and I will begin to instruct you on the matter of leading this company. You _will_ spend next summer here, no matter the circumstances. Do you understand?"

"Yes, father," Weiss said. A million questions and protests were at the tip of her tongue, but she didn't _dare_ say anything that might make her father change his mind.

Sitting back down, Jacques nodded to her and returned his attention to his papers. "You are dismissed. Arrangements have been made for you to return to Vale the day after tomorrow."

Weiss stood up and walked as calmly as possible to the door. "Thank you, father," she said, inclining her head to him again, then left the room. Shutting the door behind her, she leaned against it and took a deep shuddering breath, shaking.

 _He would have disinherited me if I hadn't stood up to him in the car the day of the massacre._

Weiss clenched her fists, head leaning sideways against the door so she could look down the hallway. She could see the gold frame where she knew her family portrait rested: her, Winter, Whitley, Mother, and Father, happy.

The portrait of her family before Winter had been disinherited, before Willow had taken up her drink, before Jacques had torn their family apart.

 _I'm going to take this company back. I'm going to restore the SDC to what it was before Father, to what Grandfather had wanted._ She had sworn it to herself all those years ago, listening at the door as Father and Mother had argued for the final time, when Father revealed that he had taken over the company for nothing but the wealth. Now she swore it to herself again, the fire renewed in her chest.

She knew what it meant to be a leader. She knew what it meant to protect people. All she had to do was protect her inheritance, and someday the SDC would become a force for good in the world again.

Pushing away from the door, Weiss held her head high and went to find Klein.

* * *

 _"_ _Um, Professor Goodwitch?" Pyrrha said, standing behind her. "I have something I need to tell you."_

Qrow started as a sharp rap came from the door to his hotel room. Grimacing, he shoved two open bottles of booze under his bed and his flask into his coat pocket. Wrinkling his nose to try and clear the stench of liquor, he sat up on the bed and called, "It's open, come in." He kept an eye on his scythe against the wall.

Glynda stood in the entrance. Her cheeks were stained by rivulets of mascara, and her riding crop was desperately clutched to her chest. Qrow jumped off the bed and rushed to her side, but she shook her head before he could touch her. "Qrow…"

"Gods, Glynda, what happened?" he asked, standing awkwardly as she swayed.

 _"_ _She loves you. You're her everything, and she'll be with you forever. That's what she told me. I promised her I would tell you. She'll be with you forever. She'll be-" Pyrrha's voice_ _had_ _cracked, and she hung her head. "She'll be with you forever."_

Glynda looked up at Qrow with hollow eyes. "Take me with you," she whispered, her voice cracking as she talked. "I need- I need to forget about everything. You're the only thing I have left." Her hands fell, one desperately wrapping around the battered old promise ring on the other. "Please."

Qrow looked at her, then nodded slowly. "I know a place on the wharves in the industrial district. We'll go there." Gently guiding her out of the room, Qrow sighed and kicked the door shut behind him.

 _"_ _I'm sorry," Pyrrha_ _had_ _whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."_

* * *

Atlas was a city of grand promenades and cloistered squares, with Sanian statues scattered in every imaginable place. Amurino Plaza was known for its grand arches above each of the ten streets that fed into the ancient square. At the heart of the old city, it was a center for the Atlesian elite. A grand gilded fountain rose high in the center, trees and flowers speckling the cobblestone, and each of the surrounding buildings had colorful classical facades that seemed to glow in the height of summer.

Important things happened in Amurino. The plaza had been the center of the Dynstar Rebellion two centuries earlier, the one that had resulted in the expulsion of all faunus from the newly christened capital to Mantle. Even earlier, it had been a center of happenings for millenia – some of the buildings traced their roots back to the golden days of the Sanian empire when Atlas had been nothing but a frontier city in an empire that covered the globe.

Today, all eyes were on the Amurino Tea House, where two of the most powerful people in Atlas were quietly talking in a streetside alcove carefully interwoven with vines for privacy. A military detail was stationed around the restaurant, and private SDC security blocked the table off from view.

Weiss and Winter Schnee paid the onlookers and security no mind.

"I can't believe he didn't disown me. I can't believe he was thinking about disowning me," Weiss said to her sister. They sat close together, speaking in hushed tones for privacy.

Winter shook her head, staring into her drink. "He wants his control over you back. Once he realized I was in too deep with Ironwood, he disinherited me at the first opportunity he got. Clearly, he thinks he still has a chance to… mold you."

Weiss' lip curled up in disgust. "I'll play his game," she whispered back. "My teammates will support me no matter what. All that matters is that he's letting me go back to Beacon, to my friends. Everything else… It's a small price to pay." Weiss looked up at Winter with steel in her eyes. "He won't change how I feel."

Winter nodded. "You've changed since I saw you in May," she noted, taking a sip from her tea.

Weiss shrugged, looking down. "You knew about the protest. About the massacre. Nothing I could have done would have stopped it. It was a battle I couldn't win, and we fought anyways. We fought, and my friends died and lost limbs and went comatose. What happened to me? Nothing."

"Survivor's guilt," Winter murmured.

"Maybe." A cool breeze whispered through the vines, blowing a strand of loose hair from Weiss' face. "I don't have time to feel guilty about things beyond my control anymore, Winter," she said quietly. "I told you about our training mission. I was guilty for weeks, and for what? My 'dead' teammates turned out to be traitors who killed two of my friends. I- I can't go through that again. We know the risks of hunting, and we fought anyways. I wasn't hurt badly, so I have no right to feel sorry for myself. That's not leadership. My team, the people of Vale… That's what matters."

Winter's face softened. "You've grown so much, Weiss. I could never have imagined my spoiled brat of a sister would come so far."

Weiss rolled her eyes at the backhanded compliment, then grew more serious. "Becoming the leader of the SDC is a battle I _can_ win. I won't give my inheritance up, not now."

"I would expect nothing less of you. You always were stubborn."

Sitting back in her chair, Weiss looked her sister up and down, noting the lines under her eyes. "How is your promotion?"

"Challenging." Winter sighed and followed her lead. "James trained me to take on his role someday for _years_ , but I never expected to have to become a general so soon. The army is in complete disarray – we lost half of our navy. Half! Gods, a semblance of that magnitude..."

Weiss' eyes widened. "You know that Qrow and Ruby managed to capture Harkan, right?"

"What?!" Winter stood abruptly, staring at her. "How?"

"That's why Ruby is comatose, she had to use her silver eyed powers to take out the horde of Grimm that rushed her when his control on them faltered."

Winter's eyes were wild for a long moment, then narrowed as she clenched her fists. "I will be having choice words with Qrow about this lack of intelligence," she hissed, her tone vibrating with rage. "When we agreed to this defense pact-"

"Winter, please, calm down," Weiss said hurriedly. "Remember where we are."

Taking a deep breath, Winter sank back into her seat. "Of course." She massaged her temple with two fingers. "I am… under an incredible amount of stress right now, Weiss. Leading Atlas' army has proved far more challenging than I anticipated. Forgive me."

Weiss rested her hand on Winter's back and gently nudged her tea towards her. "Of course."

Her sister picked her tea up and took a long sip. "You really are an adult now," she murmured. "Eighteen, mixed up in the same gods-awful political shit as me…"

"I understand," Weiss said. "If there's anything I can do..."

"Well, there was one thing I was going to ask you about." Winter set her cup down and looked at Weiss. "Your semblance."

"My… semblance?" Weiss repeated dumbly.

Winter sighed. "I take it from your tone that you haven't thought about it since you left Atlas last summer. Have you worked on it at all?"

"Of course I have! I'm getting better and better with my glyphs! I've even started _Time Dilation_!" Weiss said in an offended tone, unable to meet Winter's eyes.

"You know that's not what I mean."

"Okay, fine! I still can't Summon," Weiss admitted, crossing her arms. "You know I can't-"

"Enough with that. Every Schnee for hundreds of years has been able to summon," Winter said harshly. "If you really want to protect people, really want to beat Father at his own game, you need to learn how to master your own powers." Weiss opened her mouth to protest, but Winter shook her head. "If you know about-" Winter's voice dropped to a hushed whisper. " _Salem,_ then you are in more danger than you can possibly understand. Leadership is important, but never, _ever_ forget that you are just important as your teammates."

"I don't understand," Weiss whispered back.

"This is a lesson James taught me. It doesn't matter whether your troops will follow you into battle or how skilled they are. If you can't inspire greatness, if you can't lift every soldier from their darkest moment, then you may win the battle but you will lose the war." Winter forced Weiss to meet her eyes. "You've got enough knowledge to command a country and the heart to make people follow you. Your teammates trust and love you, but that's _not enough_. _You_ have to be strong, Weiss. You have to carry your team on your back, even when you're fighting alone."

The plaza bustled with noise and life around them. Dappled light filtered through the vines. "How?"

Winter rose to her feet and turned away. "Keep faith in your team. Never stop learning. But if you want to be truly strong, master your Summoning." Unclipping her sword, she plunged the tip in between the cobblestones. The icy projection of a Beowulf came to life beside her, mist steaming from its eyes. Nodding, Winter turned back to her sister. "Master yourself, and you'll win your wars, Weiss. That's how to lead. That's how you'll lead, once you figure it out."

"Winter?" Weiss murmured in near awe as Winter dispelled her illusion.

Winter smiled at her, and held out a hand. "Come on, there isn't enough space here. I'm sure we can find somewhere in Father's forest to practice."

Weiss steeled herself, then took Winter's hand, a swell of determination taking root in her swayed in the breeze.

* * *

The doors to the Underground slammed open. Emerald casually strolled into the room, kamas at either hip, her poisons safely secured along her belt. Ignoring the commotion she was causing around her, she walked straight towards the dias and stopped at its foot. Astral stood as she approached, motioning for her guards to hold off on restraining her. "Emerald Sustrai. What do you want?"

Smirking, Emerald looked up at Astral Skulla with red eyes. Projecting her voice, she called to the room, "I want to make a formal challenge for the leadership of the Underground!"


	6. Omake II (C35)

Omake II (C35)

* * *

re:Bound Plus

Allison Illuminated

Chapter Publish Date: 10/28/18

Beta: Vixie

* * *

 **Where in re:Bound – Part 5/6 of the Underground AU. Emerald and Ilia chase down and kill a spy. Emerald challenges to lead the Underground. Yang accuses Raven of abandoning her. Bella wakes up. Oscar denies Ozpin's existence. Weiss is in Atlas dealing with Jacques. Glynda melts down with Qrow**

 **Why it Was Cut – See Part One. Note that Weiss' scene with Jacques is more or less the same in the current re:Bound.**

 **TW: See Part One.**

* * *

This time, they awoke together.

 _Neo._

Ruby reached up to brush a tear away from Neo's eyes, which ran down her extended arm. Neo closed her eyes. _Took you long enough, Rose,_ she whispered, then leaned down and pressed a kiss to Ruby's brow.

"I can't see," Ruby whispered, her arm slumping back up to her side. "Neo, I can't see." Her only eye darted from side to side desperately; the silver orb rested, immobile. She brought her other hand up to touch the dead skin, shuddering at the cold, metallic touch. She was ice, fragile, ready to shatter all over again at one wrong touch.

 _I know_. _Tai said your vision is supposed to return in your good eye, but..._ Pressing two fingers above Ruby's heart, Neo concentrated. Her crackling black and white aura burst to life, and they both glowed for a moment as she used the connection to transfer as much aura and calm emotion as she could. Ruby relaxed into her pillow, the panic rising in her chest abating. Despair curled at her fingertips.

She meant to say thank you, but it came out as _I love you_.

Neo's shoulders sagged, and her palm fell flat against Ruby's breast. _Should I tell them you're awake?_

"No." Ruby pressed her hand atop Neo's, looking far older than her age. "I need to..." Unable to form the words, she slipped back into thoughts. _Stay with me,_ she begged.

A memory rose to mind, of sitting in a bed in Shelter Hospital with Roman's blood fresh in her mind. Then, Ruby had at least been able to pretend to Yang she could still be naive. Now, all she could see was Harkan and burning cities, the betrayal on Yang's face when she had learned the truth.

 _This is who I am, now._

Then Neo was there, holding her, and she was crying bitter, hopeless tears from a single silver eye.

 _I'm here, Rose. I won't ever let you go._

Line Break

 _"How did you do that?"_

 _The alleyway loomed around them, shadow sky above bearing down. The woman pulled the brick around her, forcing their gazes together, tilting the world around them. Emerald's heart raced, the diamond ring in her pouch burning a hole in her thigh. This was where it ended; she had failed her golden rule, and somebody had noticed her steal. She knew what they did to_ _thieves._ _She could see the dual swords on the huntress' back, her complete self-assurance. Danger always took the same form._

 _She went for her pistols._

 _"Don't."_

 _Footsteps pound at the mouth of the alleyway. Gasping, Emerald_ _jerked_ _backwards, pressing herself behind a set of boxes until the noise of her pursuers fades._ _When she emerged, the woman had moved towards her silently, the tinkling of her glass anklet the only indication she had moved. They we_ _r_ _e less than three paces apart. Emerald fought ever_ _y_ _instinct in her body to flee, clenching her fists. "What do you want?"_

 _The woman smirked idly at her obvious fear, holding out her palm to one side. "_ _I've already told you._ And I don't like repeating myself."

 _"_ _I didn't do anything! Just leave me alone!"_

 _"_ _I know my fair share of liars and thieves. Stealing is an art of patience, coordination, and in a pinch, sleight of hand. But you didn't steal the ring in your pocket." Emerald flinched, her hand flying to protect her pouch. "_ _You took it right before the jeweler's eyes. And he_ smiled."

She saw.

 _Emerald's defensive pose sagged, and the walls of the alley grew even more claustrophobic. The woman's smirk grew. Some vital defense inside of her failed. "Who are you?"_

 _The woman paused, and for a brief moment her eyes darted down to the anklet. Then, it was gone._

 _"My name is_ _Au-_ _Cinder. Cinder Fall. And I have a_ _n_ _offer I don't think you want to turn down."_

 _The sky drifted._ _The walls fell back into place._ _Emerald walked out of the alley alive._

* * *

The bass rang, vibrating through Mistral Kell, and the city felt it. The first beat sent shivers through the mountain, deep, the kind of anthem that pounds in your chest and touches your aura to its core. Mistral woke in time; dogs barking, families at Kelltop looking around in bewilderment. In his office, Leonardo Lionheart clutched his desk, his eyes widening in panic, before grabbing the suitcase he had prepared and fleeing the room. The orb-like Grimm clung to the darkness and watched him go.

The warrens felt the second beat, Trenchers spilling from the alcoves and massing in the same direction. The ancient tone was a call, a summons, one that hadn't been heard in twenty-six years. Not everyone in Mistral understood it, but those who did reacted, pouring into the streets. Those who knew the Underground entered the mountain.

The third beat was for Emerald.

The antechamber was nearly spherical aside from two small hallways leading in either direction and a small floor in the center. Intricate murals covered the walls; dust carvings lined the floor. Emerald sat on a bench in the center, leaning forwards with her arms propped against her legs. Her kamas and poisons were strapped to her belt, locked and loaded.

 _I can't lose._

If she failed here, there would be no salvation, nobody to deliver her back to Cinder. Nothing she had ever worked for, that Cinder had ever given her, would matter if she died alone today. Nobody would save her like she had saved Cinder.

 _Why isn't Cinder here? Why did Salem take her away from me?_

Nobody answered her.

A fourth beat sang a cry for death.

"Emerald Sustrai." A hooded woman wearing a blood red cloak entered the room, and Emerald bowed her head in deference. She wasn't a religious person for all she believed in gods – she knew too many in person for the gods of legend to hold any sway of her – but she still showed respect to the priests of the Temple. "Are you prepared for your challenge?"

"Yes." Emerald rose, her locks spilling down her back. "I'm ready." There was no room for hesitation now.

The woman bowed to her. "Then follow me." She turned back down the tunnel from which she had come. Emerald followed her out of the antechamber and into the arena, only to be dazzled by the brilliant light within.

The Heart of Mistral floated high in the largest cave Emerald had ever seen, high above the towering stands and open stone floor. The Heart was a gargantuan crystal, neither dust nor electronic but a simple marvel of ancient technology older then the fragmented remains of Mistrali history. It glowed a pulsing blue, illuminating the entire hollow. According to Salem's men in the Underground, the crystal was single-handedly responsible for powering the entire city of Mistral, and removing it from the hollow would take destroying the entire top of Mistral Kell, something unimaginable to even the servants of evil itself.

Below, tens of thousands of people roared as Emerald walked into the arena. Her hands felt clammy and she had to fight to not show visible fear in front of so many people. The first emperors of Anima had been coronated here, and the last emperor had been executed by Sanian forces. Now, people spilled into the seats from all directions, cheering and chanting and screaming for blood. Even more simply watched her as she walked to the edge of the marked battlefield, head held high and defiant.

Since the unification of the tribes, Mistral had experienced its greatest peace since before the Great War under Skulla's control. Now, everybody could feel change on the air, and the tension stank of fear. Emerald was surprised the Grimm weren't already on top of them.

 _"_ _On the left side, the challenger for the title of_ _leader_ _of the Underground, Emerald Sustrai!"_ an announcer boomed from a podium along the left side of the battlefield. A ripple went through the crowd, then they erupted into a chorus of jeers and boos.

For the first time, Emerald truly understood the weight of what she was about to undertake. Destabilizing a kingdom was one thing. In Vale, she had come in, done some basic illusion work, and made sure Cinder didn't die. That was it. Here…

If she won, these would be _her people_. _She_ would be the one running the Underground, and _nobody else_. By killing their leader, by plunging an entire city into instability to come back out on top, Emerald would have to be the one to bring them back together or everything would go to absolute shit.

 _I don't know how to lead._

 _I only know how to follow._

An eruption of screams and cries came before Emerald could begin to comprehend what she had gotten herself into. She lifted her gaze to the figure regally walking across the battlefield.

Astral Skulla looked like nothing short of a death goddess as she entered the arena. Her normal outfit was gone, and in its place she wore full-out battle regalia – dusteel plate armor infused with ice dust, Grimm-spike gauntlets, and a haunted gravity dust-infused cloak that wafted behind her on a non-existent breeze. Her skull bandana was tight against her face, and her lilac hair flowed wildly down her back. A long katana was strapped to her back.

 _"_ _On the right side, leader of the Underground,_ _Reagent Animatus of the Nevermore Queen, Raven Branwen, the challenger Astral Skulla!"_

If the negative reaction to Emerald had been loud, the screams for Skulla were deafening. The crowd erupted, knotting Emerald's stomach even further. She felt queasy, sweating before the battle had even begun.

Suddenly, all of the attention in the room seemed to turn off to one side, and the room turned red for a brief moment. Emerald's jaw dropped when she saw the swirling red portal, ten feet high on the main pedestal. There was a moment of anticipation, then Vernal stepped into the arena.

The reaction was immediate to Raven's second-in-command. The Underground went wild, rising to their feet as the battlefield began to lift into the air. The energy was palpable in the room, nervous anticipation and faith in Astral mixing together. Astral and Vernal exchanged a long pointed look, then after a long moment Astral bowed, sending the frenzy to new heights. Everyone knew it; the Nevermore Queen was presiding over the battle herself, even if she wasn't there in person.

In the swell of Mistral, Emerald was nothing but a pebble battered along on the tide.

 _"Challengers, take you_ _r_ _positions!"_

Emerald walked forward, meeting Skulla's eyes as she stopped at the center circle of the battlefield. Astral stared back with punitive anger, as if she was a bug who had drawn blood at just the wrong time.

Vernal walked to the edge of the podium, broadly surveying the crowd. The announcer spread one arm wide and said, _"This is a formal challenge, conducted under section three of the Code of Ancients! Both combatants may use anything they have carried into the arena in the battle. The arena will be sealed as of this moment."_ A forcefield sprung to life around the battlefield, cutting the rest of the arena and the Heart of Mistral away from Emerald and Astral. " _There are no rules regarding conduct in the arena. Outside interference through the blocking field in impossible, as the Heart of Mistral can generate an anti-semblance field. Any attempts to sway the outcome of the challenge outside of the field will lead to immediate arrest and detention."_ The announcer bowed his head. _"The challenge ends when one combatant dies. Emerald Sustrai and Astral Skulla, please raise a fist to show your agreement to these terms."_

Astral thrust her gauntlet into the air, eliciting a roar from the crowd. Emerald took a deep breath, looking from Astral to Vernal.

 _I won't lose, Cinder._

Emerald lifted her fist, closing her eyes, then snapped them back open with a bloodshot fury. She was one of the best assassins and thieves on Remnant. She knew how to fight. She knew how to kill.

 _"When the Heart sounds, the formal challenge will commence. Long live the Nevermore Queen! Long live Anima!"_

A figure ran to the edge of the podium and jumped off. Emerald gasped when the dragon faunus unfurled their wings, a massive mallet in their grip. _I though_ _t_ _the dragon faunus had gone extinct…_ she thought in mild awe, her disdain for faunus distracted by the magnificence of their wings. _It makes sense that Branwen would be hiding traditional symbols of Animan power somewhere in this hellhole._

Golden wings shimmering under the light of the Heart, the dragon faunus drew back and struck the luminous gem. The fifth beat rang deep, louder than all the ones before, shaking Mistral Kell to its core.

Emerald snapped her attention back to Skulla, who was slowly drawing her katana. The blade's length was infused with ice dust, misting as the tip came down to brush the stone floor. Her kamas slid out of her sheathe with practiced ease, chains klinking against the ground. Astral and Emerald slowly advanced towards each other silently, sheer menace written into the disdainful curl of the former's lip. Knowing her opponent already knew her semblance, Emerald reached out into Skulla's mind and _twisted_. The ghostly outline of black haze violently spilled from her aura, flickering in her opponent's view. Skulla didn't even flinch, meeting Emerald's eyes head-on with a violent smirk. Then, she brought her blade back and down in a no-holds-barred overhead strike. Emerald brought both of her kamas up to block.

Skulla's blow smashed through her weapons and directly into her shoulder. Emerald screamed as the katana smashed into her aura, deep pain rolling through her body. She had barely fallen to one knee when a boot collided with her chest. Emerald flew backwards, smashing into the force-field with violent effect. She slumped to the ground, stunned.

 _Strength semblance,_ she made out through her panicked thoughts, _means that she's REALLY FUCKING STRONG!_ Forcing herself back to her feet, she narrowed her eyes at Skulla, who stood in a waiting position where she had hit Emerald. _She could have killed me there. She's toying with me._

For the first time, Emerald considered if Salem had set her up to die.

 _No. I won't lose. I won't lose. I REFUSE TO DIE LIKE THIS!_

A quick check of her scroll showed her at sixty percent aura: she could take two more hits before she was dead meat. Picking her kamas up, Emerald coolly pointed it at Skulla and shot. Astral blocked it with ease, narrowing her eyes.

 _Now._

Emerald's hands darted to her belt and she grabbed two – fire dust and concussion bullets. As she reloaded her guns, Astral tensed then launched herself at her. Emerald activated her illusion, and Skulla's blade cut through thin air. Sprinting to the other side of the arena, she finished reloading and did a shortstop pivot. One kama hanging to her side, she levied the other at Astral and fired. _Time to play dirty_.

Astral barely managed to dodge the explosion of ice dust as all sound seemed to cut out. Emerald smirked in satisfaction as Skulla showed fear for the first time, whipping around to glare at her.

Emerald could cause a man excruciating pain. She could show the face of death to an entire team of huntsmen, spark revolutions, and simulate a living person. Compared to all that, taking away a sense was nothing.

Tensing, Skulla shot towards where Emerald was with superhuman speed – where she thought Emerald was, at least. Emerald had already side-stepped her and dashed out of reach, then launched another volley of ice dust. This time, Skulla took the hit directly, her free arm instantly freezing over. Screeching in rage, she lunged towards where the bullet had come from, only to take another blast. When she hit the wall, the ice shattered and she spun back to the arena.

Smirking maliciously, Emerald raised her eyebrows at Skulla and pulled the trigger.

The concussion blast ripped into Skulla's sword arm with a deafening blast – not that Astral could hear it - and sent the katana spiraling out of her grasp. Before Skulla could recover, Emerald was on top of her and both combatants were fighting for her lives.

Emerald had never engaged in higher stakes close combat. One punch would crush her into the forcefield, and it took all of her control with her semblance and all of her battle skills not to die. Raking two strikes down Skulla's back, she rolled through her legs and sent her semblance sideways as Skulla recovered and sent a swing kick into the illusion. Emerald immediately rolled, reforming ten copies of herself, then springboarded over a punch that would have taken her head out.

 _How did she know where I was?_ Panicking, Emerald vanished her clones and focused on two other illusory copies of herself, backflipping over Skulla as each one went in a different direction. Now she was straining, trying to fight creatively and strategize at double time for three versions of herself. She tag-teamed with one of her illusions to launch a strike from behind, hitting another direct blow as Skulla dissolved the copy in the front. Crouching, Astral sprang into the air and away from Emerald.

That was when Astral drew the haladie.

The double-bladed dagger glinted obsidian under the blue light, and Emerald barely had time to think before Skulla shot towards her. Now she was on defensive and losing ground, fast. A dodge into a desperate somersault under a fractured illusion led into a flipkick off of Skulla's leg that hit her back, two illusions jumping in either direction off her back as Emerald spun away. _It's the air,_ she realized as she deflected two wrenching strikes from the haladie and returned with a slash that clipped Astral's iced arm. _I can't keep this up and block her ability to feel, that's too much. I need to play smart_ now _or I'm going to get fucked._

Conjuring her two illusory copies once more, all three Emeralds charged Skulla head-on. At the last moment, Emerald slid under the haladie and hooked her chain on Skulla's Grimmbone boots. Double-faking right then left, she sprinted to the right, shooting a concussion bullet past Skulla's head to distract her and bringing her illusions together on either side for a pincer attack. Astral took the bait, spinning just as Emerald had hoped to take out both illusions and shield herself from the bullet, causing the chain to twist around her leg.

Skulla's eyes widened in surprise when she noticed the chain, and she yanked her legs apart. Emerald winced when her precious weapon shattered, only the blade and gun left in hand, but couldn't lose the opportunity. Striking forwards, she pressed her gun to Skulla's head and pulled the trigger.

The concussion bullet sent them both flying backwards. Astral smashed into the forcefield with a crackle of energy, and Emerald hit the stone ground hard, rolling to a stop midway across the battlefield. One of her kamas flew from her grasp, and she scrambled back to her feet in a desperate attempt to retrieve it before her opponent could recover. Grabbing it, she clutched it desperately and checked her scroll with her other.

25% One hit, and she was dead meat. Her semblance was draining her fast, too fast, and she wouldn't be able to keep this level of fighting up without it.

 _Time to go all in._

Skulla slowly rose into a predatory crouch, looking like the black harbinger Emerald had envisioned her as when she walked into the arena. Taking careful aim, Emerald unloaded her entire clip of concussion bullets at once. Astral was forced to dodge instead of leaping at her, and Emerald used the pause to build up her illusion. It had to be perfect, or else it wouldn't work.

Astral paused as her empty clip clattered to the ground and smirked. That was when Emerald reached out with one arm and slowly dug her fingers into the thin air.

 _Cinder chose me for my illusions. Everything good in my life has happened because of my semblance._

 _It won't fail me now._

The crowd stopped cheering when Astral suddenly seized and fell to her knees. A hush fell over the arena. Emerald clenched her hand to a fist and let it fall to her side, smirking as she stalked towards Skulla with a kama outdrawn.

Hearing was easy to take away, but sight was even easier.

Astral tried to stagger to her feet, then screamed as her entire body erupted in excruciating, all-encompassing pain. "No!" someone in the crowd screamed as Skulla began to writhe on the ground. As if a floodgate had been opened, the entire arena erupted in panic as the tide abruptly and completely turned on their leader.

Emerald paused at Astral's side, then bent down and lifted the dropped haladie. Considering the double edged blade, she smirked.

 _This is for Cinder._

Eyes wide and teeth bared with frenzied violence, Emerald drew back with her entire body and plunged the dagger at Skulla's neck. The obsidian blade crackled against lilac aura, sending cracks down Astral's soul. Astral screamed even louder as Emerald brought the pain illusion to its maximum intensity, then brought the haladie down again. The blade plunged into Skulla's neck, biting clear through her jugular and windpipe. Emerald ripped the blade from her neck, then rammed it into her torso and twisted viciously, her victim thrashing helplessly beneath her. Tearing the blade out one final time, she buried the bloody steel in Astral's stomach and left it sticking straight up.

Rising to her feet, Emerald stood a step back and spat on the corpse. _And_ that _was for me._

Astral Skulla was dead.

Emerald raised her head to survey the crowd. People were screaming and crying, hiding their faces from their leader's gored body. Vernal's face was written with horror and shock, and she stared directly at her. Smirking, Emerald stared back and projected her voice to Vernal as an illusion. "Tell Branwen I request a meeting. I'm sure we have… plenty to talk about."

Vernal sneered, then did something to her arm that Emerald couldn't make out. The red portal reappeared, and she was gone.

" _Emerald Sustrai has killed Astral Skulla and is now the leader of the Underground!"_ the announcer called in a shaky voice. _"When the Heart is struck, the match will officially be over!"_

People flooded out of the arena as the dragon faunus rose into the air for the final time; some walking, others running as fast as possible. Emerald watched the faunus in Grimm satisfaction, knowing exactly what would happen when the mallet struck the crystal.

 _This is the beginning._ She felt powerful, standing over the broken body of her opponent. Assuming the mutts didn't screw their side of the plan up, she would be in near complete control of Mistral by the end of the day. The rush was exhilarating, addictive. She thought she could understand Cinder a bit better now.

And if Emerald was being honest, the fact that the way she thought about Cinder was changing scared her most of all.

Deep bass tolled through the Kell, rolling over Emerald's soul and shaking her to her bones. The explosion that followed, though, shook the entire mountain to its core.

Gathering her kamas, Emerald walked out of the arena. The light of Mistral's Heart illuminated Astral's corpse behind her. _That was the test._

 _Now here comes the trial._

* * *

The explosion engulfed the top of Mistral Kell. The CCT went up in a magnificent blast of fire dust and compressed gravity dust, blowing the tower to shreds. Below, smaller explosives erupted around the academy, destroying the building and sending black smoke billowing into the air. Ilia flinched at the visceral destruction, gasping as licks of flame began to engulf the remnants of Haven Academy. When the rubble began to clear, the CCT was nothing but a pile of rubble.

Pulling her scroll out, Ilia swiped it open to check – no reception.

 _That was so… easy._ She knew Lionheart had betrayed Ozpin and that the humanshad been killing hunters, but still. Destroying such a prominent symbol of the power of hunters made her sick to her stomach.

A hand rested on Ilia's shoulder. Looking up, she saw Adam looking down at her, concern in the flat line of his lips. "Ilia, it's done. We have to move or the council will be able to escape."

"I- I know. It's just-" Ilia looked helplessly back at the destruction behind them. _We did that._

"We're doing what's right for the faunus," Adam said quietly. "Everything comes with a cost. When all of this is over, we'll be able to create a school just for faunus huntsmen where they'll be able to learn without the discrimination they faced at Haven."

Ilia let her gaze linger for a moment, then set her jaw and nodded. "Yeah. Let's go."

"Good." Turning around, Adam faced the group of White Fang waiting behind them. Stepping forwards, he spread his arms wide and yelled, "Brothers and sisters of the White Fang! Today is a new dawn for faunuskind, the beginning of an era when we will not bow down before the humans! Their huntsmen are dead and their academy is gone – now we must claim this city as our own! When we reach the capitol building, we cannot risk letting them get away! Take no prisoners unless they are members of the council. Follow me!"

The assembled faunus roared as Adam turned and began the charge from the edge of Mistral Kell to the city capitol building perched on the other side of the mountain top. Ilia followed close at his heels, reaching to activate the comm on her collar. "All White Fang Members! The assault on the capitol building is starting. All units move in now!"

Civilians screamed and moved out of the way as the Fang charged down the wide boulevards of the kelltop. Mistrali police gone to help with the wreckage found themselves under immediate fire, dropping like flies as normal people scrambled to get out of the way. An airship hovered overhead, and Ilia gasped as a machine gun turret was set up at its edge. "Deal with that!" Adam yelled, gesturing to a nearby lamppost.

Ilia veered towards the metal pole, leaping off the ground then pushing off of the post to launch herself into the air. Unleashing her whip, she hooked the bottom of the airship, swinging wildly in thin air. She pressed the button to de-extend her whip, which yanked her skywards.

The policemen cried out in shock when she landed in the ship's interior. Before they could react, Ilia had kicked one man away from the machine gun and launched a round of yellow dust into the machinery to disable it. The other man fired his gun at her, but she ducked the bullet and easily knocked him out with the butt of her whip.

The pilot in the cockpit turned backwards in his seat. "Is everything okay back there?" he called.

Ilia dropped her camouflage with an idle shrug. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure everything's going according to plan," she told the pilot nonchalantly before knocking him out and ripping him out of the pilot's seat. Sitting down, she stared at the control panel. _I've never even_ seen _this many buttons! How am I supposed to fly this thing?_

"Adam, I've commandeered the airship," she shouted into the comm, yanking what looked like a control stick to avoid crashing into the wreckage of Haven. "What should I do?!"

 _"_ _Go to the capitol! Make sure they don't get away!"_ Adam commanded, static crackling through the open channel.

"O-okay!"

It struck Ilia that she had no idea to fly an airship, but it was too late to worry about that. The control stick she had used earlier she knew was for direction, so she guided the ship out of the narrow avenue and into the gap between the Kells. The capitol building came into site along the far edge, small fires and fighting scattered across the entire plaza. The only problem was that it was above her.

 _I need to go up!_ Ilia frowned at the other two joysticks and the lever, then scrunched up her face and chose one joystick. The airship did a barrel roll, and she screamed as she went upside-down, clutching the seat with her knees. _NOT THAT ONE! DEFINITELY NOT THAT ONE!_ Her spots turning a queasy green, she yanked the seat belt down, cursing herself for not wearing it at first. _Never, ever, ever doing that again._

She didn't have time to worry about that, because the capitol was approaching _fast_. Grabbing the other joystick and praying to the gods, she pulled it back. The airship's nose pointed upwards, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she began to ascend. _Fucking hell._

The Capitol was a towering six story palace once used by the emperors of Anima, with navy roofs and golden towers at the highest point of the highest kell. A helipad in one of the central courtyards was a buzzing hive of action, with humans swarming all over a series of heavily armed bullheads. Ilia gulped at the sight of the imposing airships.

 _I don't want to kill anyone._

 _"Make sure the don't get away!"_

 _This is for the good of the faunus_ , she told herself, looking at the missile button on the joystick in her grasp.

Besides, it wasn't as hard to kill people from a distance.

The first missile crashed into the nearest bullhead as Ilia swooped overhead, the ships' exposed dust fuel cell exploding the entire vehicle in a burst of compressed ice dust. The blackened hull of the destroyed ship made her sick to her stomach, along with the gaping hole the blow had caused in the nearby palace wall. Somewhere down there, a person had been caught in the explosion.

 _"_ _Get used to murder, Amitola."_ Emerald's words rang hollow in her mind, but she had more pressing concerns in mind.

The Capitol's aerial defense system sprang to life, hundreds of turrets emerging from the antique palisade. Ilia yelped in fear, pulling her airship just out of the way of a volley of destructive fire. "I don't know how to fly the stupid ship, stop shooting at me!" she screamed as the turrets grazed her wing, sending her at a wild angle into the trench.

The button for the guns was on the up/down joystick. Grabbing it, Ilia pulled the joystick back and held it down. Her turrets shook the entire airship and went wide of the Capitol. Cursing, she yanked the movement stick right. _How do I make this piece of junk move faster?!_

Her eyes caught on the level and she grinned.

The airship shot towards the capitol at a breakneck speed, slamming her back against the pilot's seat. The pilot's unconscious body crashed against the wall. With a little adjustment, the turrets were directly in her line of fire. Ilia cheered as an entire line of machine guns exploded, swooping back up and above the helipad. _Hey, this isn't that hard. As long as I'm not too jerky, it pretty much does whatever I want. Makes sense that even the stupid humans would be able to pilot these things._

In the courtyard, the two remaining bullheads were lifting up to take off. Biting her tongue in concentration, Ilia took careful aim and launched off another missile. It scored a direct hit on the side of the second bullhead, which spiraled back down to the ground in flames.

The third bullhead pulled out of the courtyard and turned towards her. "Shit," Ilia said as it opened fire.

Rounds pummeled the side of the airship, little explosions rippling through the hull far too close to the power cell for comfort. Thinking fast, Ilia yanked the joystick back and took the ship spiraling straight up. _I have one chance at this, and if I fail, I'm dead._

Unclipping her seatbelt, Ilia pushed the lever all the way up. Jumping out of her seat, she landed on the cockpit wall and tried to yank the door open. To her horror, the pilot's body was blocking her escape route. The doorknob rattled uselessly in her grasp, and she was too weak to pull the human out of the way. "FUCK!" she screamed, searching for any other escape route.

The window.

Drawing her whip, Ilia lashed at the glass. It took her three strikes to shatter it, sharp shards falling around her. Not wasting another second, she jumped out of the cockpit, barely rolled out of the way of the razor-sharp wing, and plummeted just in time. The bullhead fired a missile at the airship, which shot by Ilia and punctured the ship's damaged side. It exploded, raining a shockwave of debris that bludgeoned Ilia's unprotected body and sent her spiraling through the air.

Explosions, it turned out, _really fucking hurt_.

The Kells were dizzying miles blow, smoking fires pluming through the clear sky. Nearly dropping her whip, Ilia unleashed it as she shot head over heels towards the bullhead. Letting her camouflage hide her from the pilot, she cast her whip as far as it could go and barely managed to snag the connector between the wings and the body.

 _Watch out!_ Whiplash nearly sent her flying into the engine, her entire torso aching from the explosion seconds before. She was so far in over her head, and fear gripped her chest at the sight of the dizzying drop below.

Clawing her way onto the wing, she thanked the gods that she was a chameleon faunus – the side was slick but she had enough natural adhesive to hold on. Ilia clambered her way towards the top of the plane as it leveled out, angling away from Mistral, and past the sealed blast doors. Pausing right before the cockpit, she pulled back and slammed her whip into the glass.

The bullhead pilot screamed as the weapon pierced his chest, then slumped forwards against the console. Ilia cursed as the entire bullhead pitched forward, desperately breaking in the glass and dropping into the cockpit before she could be thrown into open air. Ripping the dead pilot off the controls – no time to stress about that now – she buckled the seat belt and stared at the controls.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" she screamed. "WHY IS IT COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM THE LAST AIRSHIP!?" Stopping herself from just jumping out the window again, she randomly started pulling on the controls, sending the bullhead spiraling out of control on its side. "NOT AGAIN!"

The cockpit door slammed open, and a harried councilman looked in. "What's go-"

"Shut up! Do you _want_ me to kill us all?" she screamed at him, finally figuring out how to stop the plane from spiraling. _Autopilot, that's a good button._ Jabbing the red button, the plane stabilized and a window came up asking for a destination. Ilia held back a sigh when Mistral came at the top of the list and she pressed it. "Just because you're going to die doesn't mean I have to also!"

"We've been hijacked by the animals!" the man shouted, ignoring her _very_ sensible advice. "They're taking us back to Mistral!"

 _Of course. Just my luck._ Ilia ducked in the seat as a bullet ricocheted past her head, fumbling to get her seatbelt undone. Rolling out of her seat, she spun around and lashed out with her whip in rapier form. The councilman dropped to the floors, clutching at the red gash in his chest. Her mind spun at having gone from one kill to… too many in a matter of less than an hour.

 _I can't linger. I just have to follow orders._

All she had to do to gather the nerves to step into the next room, bloody whip in hand, was remember all the bodies of the dead faunus, discarded like trash on the steps of the city hall.

 _If they deserve it, why don't I feel better about what I've done? What I have to_ _do_ _?_

Ilia left the cockpit and sealed the door behind her.

* * *

Adam was commanding forces through the Capitol when the bullhead appeared in the sky, angling towards the helipad. White Fang members immediately lifted their guns, but Adam held up a hand. _That's the same bullhead that left earlier._ "Hold fire!" he commanded, eyes widening when he saw the shattered cockpit.

Landing with a groaning thud, the battered aircraft's doors slowly opened. Ilia stood inside, a dozen bodies scattered at her feet, her whip slicked crimson at her side. The faunus parted as their second-in-command stumbled out of the bullhead. "Adam, they're dead," she said, a dead expression on her face. "They're all dead. Nobody got away."

Adam strode forwards and caught Ilia as she slumped forwards. Ilia dug her fingers into his jacket. She squeezing her eyes shut when he tried to meet them, her spots a sickly black-green. "You did well," Adam murmured. "If any of the humans had gotten away, we would have problems. Are you alright?"

Ilia shook her head. "I killed them," she whispered. "I puked on the way back. I can't do this, Adam, I-"

"No. You killed murderers, thieves, people who have put millions of our kind to death." Adam lifted her chin up with two fingers, forcing her to look into the glowing red slits of his mask with a sick stomach. " _Never_ forget what the humans have done to us. _Never_ forget what we are fighting for. _Never forget who you are."_

Ilia's expression softened for a brief moment, then she slumped unconscious into Adam's arms.

Adam caught her with ease, scooping her limp body up her arms. "You will understand why we have to kill, my darling," he murmured to himself, sweeping Ilia's hair out of her face and clipping her whip to his own belt. "You already understand so much more than Blake did. Someday..."

The White Fang stood around him, waiting for him to address them. Gently setting Ilia to the ground, Adam cleared his voice and declared, "The council has fallen, the academy is no more, and Mistral is ours! Make no mistake, this is the dawn of a new era for the White Fang and all of faunuskind!"

Cheers drowned out the smoldering wreckage. For a second, you could almost forget the city of Mistral had just gone up in flames.

* * *

"Aunt Celia! I'm leaving!"

Oscar's aunt looked up from the sink as he opened the door. "You're _only_ getting a new scythe, Oscar," she called over playfully, giving him a pointed look. "That means no new books, no _swords_ , and don't waste my money on sweets!"

Oscar rolled his eyes at his aunt. "I _know_ ," he whined. "It's not like you haven't already told me all of that before. I'm just going to town, how much trouble could I get into."

"Don't even get me started." Celia dried her hands off with the old dishtowel and walked over, planting a big kiss on his brow that he tried to squirm away from. "You be good, now."

"I'm leaving!" he declared, ducking under his arm and leaving the house. He was a big kid, he didn't need his aunt to kiss him every time he went to town. "Bye!"

Aunt Celia shook her head as Oscar ran down the path holding his backpack with one hand and waving with the other. "Be back by sunset!" she yelled after him.

Maple Lane led directly from the Pine family farm to the center of Galina. The road was well-worn and well-used. Farmland hugged either side, and the trees of its namesake lined the edges. Oscar grabbed a stick from the side of the road, grinning as he felt its heft in his hand. He swung at an invisible enemy, imagining his gleaming sword burying itself in a Beowulf. The entire village would be safe! He would be a hero! He could just picture himself in his aunt's armor, protecting Galina from the forces of evil…

Ozpin chuckled in his head, and his mood soured. "What's so funny?" he demanded, clutching the stick tighter.

 _"I… apologize. I shouldn't laugh, but it is heartwarming to see such hope and imagination."_

"Can't you just leave me alone?" he demanded. A passing woman looked at him, deeply offended, and Oscar flushed. "Not you, I- Forget it!" Sprinting ahead to get away from the woman, he snapped, "See? You're making me look crazy!"

 _"You're the one talking to a voice in your head."_

"Shut up! Talking to yourself is perfectly normal," Oscar declared, crossing his arms into a definite pout as he walked. "Besides, it's not funny!"

 _"Sure..."_

Oscar scowled at Ozpin's condescending tone. "Aren't you supposed to be some sort of superhero hunter guy?" he questioned. "Don't you have a better head to be in?"

A ghostly sigh echoed through his head. _"I am afraid we are stuck together, Oscar._ _Believe me, I wish this wasn't the case. But, as I've told you before, our auras have been joined together. For all purposes, we are a single soul."_

"Isn't that exactly what the villain in all the stories would say to the hero to convince them to let them be in their mind?" Oscar questioned hotly, swinging his stick back and forth in agitation.

 _"You… have a point there. However, I must assure that I am not a villain, and if I am not able to return to where I am needed, terrible things could occur."_

"Like the Battle of Vale?"

 _"Exactly."_

"I think you're lying."

 _"I'm sorry?"_

Oscar rolled his eyes, whacking a low hanging branch and sending green maple leaves drifting to the ground. "Do you actually expect me to believe you're some big hero from Vale? Nobody from Vale comes to Galina. Nobody from _Mistral_ comes to Galina. There's no way you're anyone important. I'm just going crazy, and Aunt Celia's going to have to pay to put me in an asylum."

 _"Oscar-"_

"No, I'm done listening to you," Oscar declared as they entered the outskirts of Galina. "Unless you want to help me pick out a scythe," he added thoughtfully at the end.

 _"Well, I would consider myself an expert on scythe selection..."_

"Of course he does," Oscar muttered, reaching back and putting his stick into his pack. "What else, next he'll tell me he's a chef too!"

 _"I do make a mean cup of coffee,"_ Ozpin mused as they walked into the weapons shop.

"Hello?" Oscar called, hitting the bell on the counter. Nobody came, leaving him alone in the dark space. The swords on the wall were a little bit intimidating, so after a few minutes he turned around and left. "That was weird. Why wasn't anyone around?"

 _"_ _I don't know."_

They found out the answer moments later – a gathering of townspeople were clustered in the center of the town square, talking to each other in hushed voices. Oscar's eyes widened when he saw the blacksmith, and he hurried over. "Mr. Kingwood! What's going on?" he called, running up to the burly man.

The anxious creases in Kingwood's face lessened slightly when he saw Oscar. "Ah, Oscar. What brings you into town today?"

"Aunt Celia wants a new scythe," he said earnestly, looking at the crowd around them. "What's going on?"

"Nobody knows. The reception on everybody's scroll went down an hour ago. We thought it might be maintenance, but with the attack on Vale..." Kingwood shook his head. "Could be anything. Next train from Mistral comes in five minutes. Folks are waiting for the news. God forbid something happened to the CCT… Half the world's connection gone in two months, now that'd be a nightmare."

Oscar shivered, suddenly frightened. The CCT might be down? Wouldn't so much fear attract the Grimm? "Can I-"

"Of course," Kingwood said kindly when Oscar shifted closer to his side. "You can tell me how your old aunt is doing while we're waiting," he added with a roguish wink.

Oscar laughed. "I'm pretty sure she's still a lesbian, sir."

"Hey, an old man can hope. Mind you, when I was still a young lad..."

Even as Oscar listened to Kingwood's story, he could feel Ozpin growing agitated in the back of his mind. It got bad enough that he was forced to clench his fist to stop himself from talking to Ozpin. _Shut up!_

 _"Oscar, we have to go. I have a_ very _bad feeling about this."_

Oscar was about to retort when a realization struck him. _Wait, I can talk to you mentally?_

 _"Evidently."_

 _And you've just been letting me talk to myself like a fool for the past month!?_

 _"You_ were _the one who was denying my existence. I didn't think you would be particularly willing to listen to reason."_

 _I hate you._

 _"That doesn't change the fact that we have to leave."_

Waves ran through the crowd, and a hush fell as a whistle announced the approaching train. The locomotive pulled into the station and came to a complete stop, then the doors slid open. Oscar gasped in horror as masked armed figures spilled out. Villagers cried out in alarm, but they were surrounded before anybody got a chance to react. _What?!_

 _"This, Oscar, is a terrorist organization called the White Fang,"_ Ozpin said solemnly. _"And if they are here, we should be very, very worried."_

Before Oscar got a chance to react, a megaphone interrupted his thoughts.

"Citizens of Galina!" cried a masked man standing on the train platform. "Your town, along with the entire kingdom of Mistral, is now under the governance of Adam Taurus and the White Fang! The council of Mistral has graciously accepted to step down from power, and the CCT and Haven Academy have been destroyed! Moreover, Astral Skulla, leader of the Underground, is dead, and Emerald Sustrai has taken her place!"

 _"What?"_ Ozpin demanded in quiet horror. Oscar took a step backwards at the sheer negative emotion he could feel coming from the voice in his head.

 _Emerald Sustrai?_

 _"A very bad woman responsible, in part, for the attack on Vale."_

 _What?!_

"Your town will now host a White Fang garrison," the announcer continued. "Please bear in mind that your local branch of the Fang will report any… insurrection directly to High Leader Taurus. If you have any questions, we will answer at this time."

The village square descended almost immediately to shouts, everybody pushing forwards to get closer to the Fang representatives. Kingwood, who had been staring at the terrorists in shock, clasped a firm hand on Oscar's shoulder. "You need to get out of here, kid," he whispered. "I don't know what going on here, but it's no place for a child."

"I'm not a child!" Oscar protested, but Kingwood was already floating away in the crowd.

 _"Oscar, he's right. We need to get off of Anima, before it's too late."_ Ozpin's voice carried an urgent tone Oscar hadn't heard before. _"If we get trapped here and Miss Nikos is left alone, then-"_

"Who is Miss Nikos?" Oscar asked angrily. "What's so important about Vale? Why does it even matter? I'm just a kid-"

 _"No, Oscar, you may just be a kid, but_ we _are older together than this kingdom itself. There are things far beyond your understanding, and if I do not act, this entire world will be in danger. So, I will ask you one final time: Will you go to Vale?"_

"No! I'm not going anywhere! You didn't answer my que-"

 _"Then I am so very sorry, Oscar."_

Oscar saw green, then his world went black.


	7. Omake II (C36)

Omake II (C36)

* * *

re:Bound Plus

Allison Illuminated

Chapter Publish Date: N/A

Beta: Vixie

* * *

 **Where in re:Bound – Part 6/6 of the Underground AU. Mistral has fallen. Emerald runs the Underground. The White Fang has assumed military control. Oscar has fled. Ruby is awake.**

 **Why It Was Cut – This last scene was never posted, as I, along with Vixie, made the decision to rewrite Volume Four immediately after this. There was another scene I wrote after here too, but it has vanished into the netherrealm and I don't expect ever to find it.**

 **TW – See Part One**

* * *

Blue.

Skyward, the daymoon drifted in and out of wispy clouds, hazy and dissolving into the horizon amid the sun's sere rays. Seaward, waves stretched out in all directions – crests, but no whitecaps, the sort of gentle restlessness absent from the coast. A towering wake trailed the vessel, disturbing the serenity, yet seldom aboard the _Sapphire_ cast their glance outwards, having sated their curiosity or mere passive interest days ago. The Animan coast had long receded from sight.

Oscar Pine's vision faded in slowly like a scroll with bad reception. Static clung to the edges of his sight, ingraining the sea and sky to little more than a blue smear. _What?_ He squinted, bringing a gloved hand up to shield his gaze from the sun. Wooden decking swayed beneath his feet; brine sprayed his exposed forearm, the moisture clinging to his tan skin. _Where am I?_

The ocean spilled out before him as far as he could see in every direction, not a speck of green in sight. "This isn't Galina," Oscar whispered to himself, unable to control a swell of awe at the sheer _vastness_ of the world around him.

 _This is the Destinic Ocean._ Ozpin gazed at the ocean; they were one, they were two. _This is the heart of humanity, Oscar. We sail the crossroads of Anima, Solitas, Sanus, and Ferus, waters our people had sailed for millennium before I was born._

 _It's endless._ Oscar gripped the railing to anchor himself against the dizzying deep. He was a farmhand; he had never even seen _Mistral_ , and now-

 _Our universes are never as small as we make them_ , Ozpin murmured. Old wisdom laid in the words, and for the first time, Oscar allowed himself to listen. _People are content with the life presented to them, simply because other lives never occur to them in the first place. Only the fortunate few ever realize a whole world lies right beyond their doorstep. The four kingdoms are nothing compared to the empires that came before them. The Destinic Ocean is impossibly vast, yet is little more than a sea compared to the Charic Ocean surrounding the continents. An entire side of Remnant is unknown to us, even to me, told of only in ancient fragments from before the empires. I am old, but even I know so little about this world._

Oscar hung his head, a breeze blowing his hair across his forehead. "I'm never going to see Aunt Celia again, am I?" he whispered, trying to hold back tears.

 _I don't know,_ Ozpin whispered back, remorse echoing in his mind.

"Why? I didn't want this. I don't want to go to Vale. I didn't..." Despite his best efforts to stave his emotions off, a hot tear trickled down Oscar's cheek. His glove was rough against his soft skin, leaving flecks of dirt behind. "I never had a choice, did I?"

 _You may not be deeply religious, Oscar, but I am._ _ **We**_ _are._ Thousands of voices spoke as one, hollow. _The two brothers, the two gods, created this world and placed humanity as their guardians. The god of light, Destinus, poured life into this ocean, and it still bears his name. Dust is named after him. This is not the heart of Destian philosophy, though._

"Destiny," Oscar murmured, staring into the horizon.

 _Destinus is not only the god of light, but also of order._ Ozpin spoke with deep authority. _Just as Charus rules both darkness and chaos. Humanity has a choice of which path to choose, but that choice is made long before they step foot on Remnant. Destiny is the course of our lives and the role in order each of us leads. Order is civilization; without it, humanity will fade. This is what we must prevent, Oscar Pine. This is your destiny. This is our destiny._

"You aren't..." Oscar closed his eyes. "No, _we_ aren't human, are we?"

 _No. Not anymore._

Oscar nodded to himself twice, then turned his back on the ocean. "Then I never had a choice, did I? I never had a choice at all."

Ozpin's voice lingered in deep sadness. _None of us did, Oscar._

 _ **And now there's no way back.**_

* * *

 **[A/N] In retrospect, now that V4 has been properly completed, what do you guys think of the Underground AU? Does it hold up, or is the current V4 just a complete improvement? I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

 **Also, posting half a 100k in just over in hour feels pretty neat. Love that.**

 **Allie**


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